Rise of the Planar Trade Consortium

Planescape mercantilism

In which our heroes receive prophecy, divert Gilgamesh’s attentions from the south, are reunited with Rook, investigate a slain trade caravan, track the “raider” into the desert, are beset by Mirya, and defeat her.

Camillas is given a prophecy that if Gilgamesh goes south he will surely die. Soon thereafter word comes to the court of the Great King that trading caravans from the south have been slain by mystical raiders employing magical arrows. While speaking with the nobles who bring this to the court of Gilgamesh Rook is returned to Sioned by the Crone of the Shadowfell, who destroys his body and takes a corpse over so that she can stuff his soul into it with powerful necromantic magics.

The heroes succeed in convincing Gilgamesh to let them investigate the raiders while he stays home, Mitya offers to take him (in disguise) on a tour of the brothels of Uruk.

Investigating the trail of the caravan the group travels away from the rivers and into the desert seeking where it was destroyed. In the depths of the wastes they find the first site, but little evidence is left. Camillas uses magic to speak with the flora in the area and her description of the attack makes it clear that Mirya, the djinni wife of Prince Balaam, is responsible. The plants describe her quite accurately as “flying down from the sun and slaying everyone with golden arrows before returning again to the skies”.

Using more magics Sioned begins to track Mirya’s path out into the desert. After many hours of travel she believes they are getting closer. It is at this point that Mirya, who has been watching them, flies to the attack. (again appearing out of the sun)

The battle is a nasty one. Mirya rarely descends to the ground. Her bow, the Rainbow itself, is lethal in her hands, and her golden arrows cause great concern every time she plucks the golden string in her bow. Rook succeeds in using divine magics to bind himself to her, and is granted flight by his allies such that she cannot escape him. Giilos and Camillas pepper her with “shots”, weakening her. Sioned barely manages to keep everyone on their feet, despite the massive damage Mirya is outputting.

In the end Rook’s binding is too strong, and Mirya is felled by his blows.

In which our heroes meet a priestess, receive a prophecy, depart Uruk seeking information for Gilgamesh, the King, travel across the lands encountering strange and savage peoples, discover that the villain of the piece is an old friend, rouse the King to battle, and guard him while Enkidu and he prepare to battle The Forest Demon Humwawa.

In Uruk, a King, Gilgamesh. In his court Three Great Heroes: Mitya, Giilos, and Sioned, strangers from distant “lands”.

To the court of Uruk comes the High Priestess Nin-Hursag, Lady of Ianna-Sin who shall in time be called Ioun. The High Priestess arrives not alone, nor in secret, but accompanied by several hundred warriors, borne upon the backs of many strong litter-bearers. Gilgamesh arranges a grand reception, on the spur of the moment summoning a thousand of his greatest soldiers, his richest merchants, his grandest priestesses, and his haughtiest nobles beneath great tents erected before the Gate of the Moon; close by his side, Sioned, Mitya, Giilos, Camillas, and his companions.

Nin-Hursag brings word of a prophecy her Goddess has given to her. If Gilgamesh and Enkidu do not set forth upon a journey to the ends of the world a great disaster will befall the cities of The Valley of Two Rivers; the Forest Demon Humwawa will come and destroy all mortal creations therein.

Gilgamesh sends our Heroes to seek information from the dangerous sorceress Akalabeth, who lairs outside the city in the hills nearby. She tells them that Humwawa is a powerful primordial of the forest who mostly sat out the Great War in favor of tending his wilderness and that “he” dwells in the great forest to the east by the Silver Sea. She and Camillas undertake some more ritual magics seeking information whilst the other three return to Uruk.

Sioned, Mitya, and Giilos then set out from Uruk seeking more information about Humwawa. On magical steeds they race up the Valley of Two Rivers and follow the trader’s paths east to the Silver Sea. There they turn south and follow the coastline for a few days. Along the way they seek out the sporadic villages of humans the savage tribes of halflings of Humwawa’s Forest seeking to learn more of “him”.

The humans are mostly useless (damn humans), they have no particularly useful information to impart about Humwawa save that he can not be seen by “mortal eyes”. The savage halflings prove more useful. They second the human’s tales of Humwawa’s invincibility. However they also point the heroes towards a young girl, living alone in the forest, who it is said is visited regularly by Humwawa. In return for the help of the shaman of the halflings they trade to him the ritual of Fey Passage, so that he and his tribe can enter the Feywild to there confront several forces that have been vexing them.

Traveling to the area indicated by the dinosaur-riding savages they discover a small hut in a vale, with a small lake nearby. In the gardens a young human girl, perhaps 14, is working. She is initially terrified of the invaders, but warms to them when they offer to help her. Mitya sneaks a peek into her hut, and finds it filled with mundanities like stored food and sleeping furs and clothes.

The next day the heroes talk further with the girl, and discover that she is possessed of several magical compulsions. She cannot leave the wilds. She must be terrified of strangers. She MUST keep people away during the night lest they be destroyed by the monsters of the forest…..

Giilos lies to her and tells her that the next night they will continue to rest near the lake, away from her and her hut.

In fact Mitya and Giilos sneak up to the hut. Sioned trails them, some distance behind so as to not give the other two away with stray noise. Inside they can see a bright light, but the door is locked, and it is also far more strong than the rickety hut (or it’s appearance) would warrant. With great effort, and a lot of time, Mitya succeeds in disarming the wards holding the door shut, he peeks inside.

Inside the hut things are transformed. Mitya sneaks into the hut, leaving the door slightly open for Giilos to watch through. He finds himself in a brightly lit room, draped in silks, with pillows scattered around. In the center of the room, unaware of him, a girl weeps. She is garbed in fine silks, and perfumed with the most exquisite scent. Mitya observes her for a time before Sioned approaches, and the noise alarms the girl.

Spinning, with effortless motion, the girl rises . . . and grows in size . . . transforming into Ayla, the First Wife of Prince Balaam. She knows not the invaders of her home, and raises an impenetrable wall of fire between herself and them (a Wall of Force with some color-text). Untouchable she succumbs to Sioned’s clever words, and is trapped into monologuing her evil plan. (like every good supervillain can be) She let’s loose that she has prompted Humwawa into attacking the Valley of the Two Rivers and destroying the only human civilization in the world. She even reveals that only “The King who has become enlightened and awakened his Third Eye” can even see Humwawa, much less defeat him.

The group despairs, Gilgamesh is pretty much the anti-thesis of an “Enlightened King”.

But with Akalabeth’s help, and the advice of Nin-Hursag and Akasha they discover a ritual that will allow a mortal to awaken their third eye, and see the un-see-able. Together Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and our heroes, travel into the wastelands to intercept Humwawa. Before they battle Gilgamesh and Enkidu charge our heroes with guarding them while they undertake the ritual Akasha, Akalabeth, and Camillas have given them. While they lie incapacitated the forest arises, wakening deadly tree-spirits to assault the King. Giilos, Sioned, and Mitya succeed in defeating the spirits and save the lives of the King and Enkidu.

The next morning, awoken from their ritual slumber, the two heroes Gilgamesh and Enkidu battle the “Demon” (no demon contained, man but humans are dumb) Humwawa. Our heroes (Sioned, Giilos, and Mitya) see nothing more than a pillar of smoke and fire. In the end Gilgamesh and our heroes return to Uruk, the fearsome head of Humwawa in their possession as a trophy.

The session opens with the group in the proto-city of Gloomwrought. Sioned is contacted by Akalabeth, who asks her to use a sigil-sequence to come to her. Rook cannot be found, but Sioned is moderately unconcerned, and everyone piles through a planar gate opened to the sequence Akalabeth has given them.

The group, less Rook, arrives in a hot world: A world with a bright, blazing, sun looking down on them. Akalabeth has taken up residence in a hut many miles from a great city, on a river. Akalabeth relates that she needs the group’s help.

She tells them that Akasha, daughter of the Raven Queen, has taken up residence in the “nearby” city of Uruk. She also relates that there is currently a problem in Uruk, Gilgamesh (the King of Uruk) has been oppressing his people and the Gods have chosen to curse him as a result. They have taken their powers and cursed a man into becoming a fearsome beast that will afflict Uruk. Alas, the man in question is Akasha’s lover, and the father of Alruna. He, Enkidu by name, has been turned into a nigh-undefeatable monster and is ravaging the wilds outside of Uruk.

The group agrees to help Akalabeth, who fears that her sister will be harmed, and head to the nearby city.

In Uruk they make their way to the King. (this might well prove more of an obstacle to less epic heroes, but Sioned, Mitya, Giilos, and Camillas easily make their way up the chain of command) In a courtyard they find Gilgamesh wrestling with his companions. Mitya agrees to wrestle him, and despite losing impresses the King so much that Gilgamesh rewards him with a drink from his own golden horn and commends him to his court. (said court is much impressed)

Camillas, and Giilos each, later that night, prove themselves worthy as well. And Sioned decides to bed the King, who proves more than equal to the task.

The next morning the group convinces Gilgamesh to let them investigate Enkidu. Traveling north, on steeds made of smoke and magic, the group easily locates the area where the wild-man lairs. Soon enough they encounter him in person. Enkidu proves undefeatable, after much fighting Sioned and her companions retreat, rather than face defeat.

The next day Gilgamesh marshals his army and marches north with Sioned, Mitya, Giilos, and Camillas. He find no different result than they did however, though he is mighty Gilgamesh is NOT the equal of Enkidu.

The following day the group suggests that perhaps the key is to send Akasha to seek Enkidu. (following several good history checks) This proves successful as Akasha is beloved of Enkidu. He so loves her, and their daughter Alruna, that he will even follow her out of the wilds and become a civilized “man”.

Now tamed Enkidu returns, with the party and Gilgamesh, to Uruk. Enkidu also proves to have a powerful sense of right and wrong and puts a stop to Gilgamesh’s depradations upon his own people. (teaching the proto-King that his own desires are not as important as the needs of his own people)

Thus endeth the session.

(it’s worth note that Pelor is not entirely “not present” for this, though it’s only tangential it’s apparent that the people who fled “the World” for the Shadowfell, and there founded Gloomwrought, come from this world, and this land in fact)

In which the heroes travel to the House of Blue Lanterns for answers, seek the Crone in the marshy plateau atop the Mountains of Yg, free the Keepers from their predators, and return to the Valley of Moaning Dreams to steal the Shadowtongue from the Crone so that the Shadar-kai can negotiate with the Keepers, resulting in the creation of the Walls of Gloomwrought (with attendant consequences).

In the Citadel of Zakarad the heroes prepare for their day. Sioned and Camillas use powerful magics to learn more about the Crone of the Valley of Moaning Dreams. They then depart, skirting the borders of the Forest of Tears along the foothills of the Mountains of Yg they travel “north”, towards the House of Blue Lanterns. Resting there for the night, the House has not yet chosen to leave where they last saw it, they ask after the Crone and how to reach her.

The following day is a hard one. Knowing they need to reach the plateau of Yg, and the marshes therein, they depart the House. The Mountains of Yg are powerfully cursed however, the curse rapidly shreds the magics they were using to travel thus grounding the party in the foothills. Mitya leads the climb, clambering up sheer cliffs with a magic rope which the rest of the group then uses to follow his path upwards. As the day ends the group just crests the peaks and looks down onto a vast marsh stretching into the distance.

The next day Camillas summons a wilderness guide, in the form of a “swamp-thing” mound of muck and goop, to guide them to the Valley. But the Valley of Moaning Dreams can only be found by following the setting sun, so the guide leads them aimlessly into the depths of the swamp until the disc of the sun begins to touch down upon the peaks of the mountains. It then turns and leads them towards the sun, surprisingly they come upon a valley in the midst of the swamp.

The Valley of Moaning Dreams is well named. Scattered around are comatose humanoids, many encased in silken cocoons. Each moans in their sleep, moans of terror and horror as if caught forever in the depths of the worst nightmare possible. Following a stream up the valley our heroes find a small hut, in which lives the toad-like Crone.

The Crone is quite enraged with them, she claims they’ve stolen her Shadowtongue and she wants recompense. The Crone is quite mad, and lives backwards in time as well, so the conversation is a bit disjointed. Giilos gets her to speak enough of the theft that they can figure out how they will do it, and Sioned convinces the Crone to forgive them at a price. She will forgive them only if Sioned steals the House of Blue Lanterns (which she refers to as “The Crossroads”) from her. She warns them, for the first time (for her), to be sure they get rid of it within three days and nights lest they suffer dire (but unspecified) consequences.

She then tells them that seeking out the Keepers can not possibly help as they have been disabled by enemies of reality. But, she will send the group to where they live, if they will take their chances. The group enters the portal she opens, and emerge in the Shadow-Heart to find an Illithid Elder Brain dominating the whole place.

They fight the Elder Brain and it’s (god-like) Thoon Hulk of a guardian, along with some mind-flayer scourges who are nearby. The Brain gets banished several times by Camillas’ magic, allowing the group to concentrate on eliminating first the Thoon Hulk and then both scourges. By the time it’s down to just the Elder Brain it’s obvious how the fight will end.

With the death of the illithids the Keepers wake, but the group cannot speak to them no matter what they do.

Returning to Gloomwrought they seek out, and purchase, several magical sesame seeds from the earliest of times. Making a seed-cake from them is difficult, but if you’ve been fortunate enough to see the magics employed it’s not impossible for an epic spell-caster, and thankfully Sioned and Rook have both spent time with Zahura (the djinni wife of Prince Balaam) and know how to do so.

Returning to the Valley via a portal sequence to an ancient circle near the Crone’s hut the group sneaks forward. As she said she would be, the Crone is asleep. Her guard-dog, a hound so huge that it has eyes the size of mill-stones, is soothed to sleep when it consumes the seed-cake. Beneath the Crone’s bed they find the box containing the Shadowtongue.

Having stolen the Shadowtongue they use it to give the Council of Elders the ability, though just for one night, to speak to the Keepers. A Deal Is Struck. In return for allowing the Keepers to feed off the fear and dread of anyone living in the city the Elders get the Keepers to agree to raise up a great wall around the city to keep it safe, as well as creating buildings and streets suitable to a planar metropolis.

In the fullness of time Gloomwrought will now rise to it’s fated glory.

Run 81 Rise of the PTC: The Shadar-kai, Pt. II “Dark Lord in a dark land”

In which our heroes lead an army of rebels, journey through the Forest of Tears, fight twisted and tormented spirits lost in the land of Shadows, and treat with a power Lord of Darkness, the Death Titan Zakarad, in the remnants of his stronghold.

Camillas wakes in the House of Blue Lanterns. She uses a spell of invisibility to wander the House in safety, not knowing what the Dark Ones are doing there. In the end she reveals herself to Sioned and Giilos, and speaks with them and Shahmar before everyone beds down for the night.

The next day the Dark Ones prepare to depart, Skrillik and some of his creepers are staying at the House. The rest of the rebel slaves depart, maybe 800 souls strong the column begins moving towards Gloomwrought. Along the way our heroes work hard to fight off the predators of the Shadowfell. By the end of the long, and exhausting, journey most (though not all) of the Dark Ones make it to Gloomwrought.

At Gloomwrought Sioned manages to forestall a battle between the army of the city and the army of refugees. However a fundamental problem remains, Gloomwrought lacks the resources to take in the refugee slaves. Adding 30% to the city’s population will absolutely result in starvation and death in just a few months. But the followers of Pelor, freed slaves themselves, do not turn away the Dark Ones; instead they take them in and begin seeking solutions.

After sleeping in a tavern the heroes are brought before the Gloomwrought Council of Elders the following morning. Tamarak is present, but is so lost to “the Grey Death” that he barely bothers to say anything at all, and House Cinder loses influence as Ilia (of House Anarrak) wields her tongue like a knife. Ilia is initially quite hostile, but eventually befriends the heroes and asks for help for the city. The Council as the group to go negotiate with Zakarad, the most powerful of the Death Giants, and try to aid the city in case the Giants are holding a grudge over the death of Gorodzh.

The following day the heroes summon magical steeds to journey through the marshes and the Forest of Tears. The journey is not uneventful, but nothing they confront can challenge a group of heroes as epic as ours. Approaching the fallen citadel of Zakarad they see the city walls are still strong.

At the gate they are attacked by a group of Tulgar. The spirits of a destroyed land they have been reformed in the Shadowfell and hate all life, especially those allied with the Gods (who they blame for the loss of their land). Camillas tries to hobble their tactics by filling the gate with a wall of ice, but the Tulgar spirit-talker banishes the wall with a blast of primal force. The Tulgar press the group a bit, but once Rook and Mitya close the battle is pretty-much decided. As is typical Mitya takes a moment during the following short rest to carve some insulting graffiti about how wussy Tulgar are and how awesome Mitya is into the nearby citadel walls.

Searching the citadel for Zakarad takes more time than there is daylight remaining. The group rests in an extra-dimensional space before resuming the search in the morning.

In the center of the citadel they find the Death Titan Zakarad. He broods upon a throne of black obsidian in a ruined throne-room. Initially he ignores everything the party does, until Giilos sparks his interest. In return for word of Gorodzh’s demise he offers word that Gloomwrought is likely safe. Gorodzh’s allies are Zakarad’s enemies and are unlikely to pursue Gloomwrought out of love of Gorodzh, doubly so since with one of his enemies dead Zakarad intends to take all of Gorodzh’s power (by eating the souls of his remaining slaves) and then perhaps he might even attack Gorodzh’s allies. (provided he can be bothered)

Zakarad even offers to help Gloomwrought some. He tells Giilos of the Keepers, and directs the heroes to seek the Crone of the Valley of Moaning Dreams if they wish to speak to the Keepers. Zakarad then stands up from his throne and begins to cast magic, the party departs (though Camillas stays long enough to garner a portal-sequence to a circle in Castle Gorodzh).

The session begins immediately following the fight, no time even for a short rest. As soon as the violence is over a crone appears, apparently she had been concealed as a boulder. She says something about meeting the group a third time, claims that by defeating the famine spirits and golem they’ve defeated her guardians, and as a result won from her the prize of the House of Blue Lanterns. She gestures; and with that reveals a great house behind the group, puts Camillas under a magical sleep, and vanishes. The last words she has to offer are that when the group has passed ownership of the House on Camillas will wake, and that it would be best if they lost it gambling instead of dying defending it’s ownership.

The House is organized around a courtyard, only a wrought-iron gate leads into the courtyard. (this is the same gate that connects to Sigil) Inside the courtyard everything is illuminated by many blue lanterns. Entering the main door from the courtyard reveals an inn. The inn is well-furnished, but totally uninhabited. There’s a ledger, but no sign of who owns the inn.

While most of the group explores the House Rook goes to look around outside the courtyard. While doing so he sees a pair of black carriages coming down the road. When they pull up he opens the gate to the courtyard and lets them in. Tamarak (an ancient man) and Emril, plus twelve followers, exit the carriages and the principals enter the inn. Rook remains in the courtyard, and later the carriage-house wing, with the servants who are attending the carriages. Giilos and his “wife” (Sioned) greet the two nobles and get them rooms and food, Mitya tends bar.

It turns out Tamarak is in charge of a diplomatic mission. The people of Gloomwrought need stone to build their city-walls, as the Shadowfell is a terribly dangerous place, and Tamarak (of House Cinder) is charged with negotiating the purchase of said stone from the Death Giants who rule the lands nearby. Sioned convinces Emril, the younger noble (and clearly next in line when Tamarak dies) to let them come along to help. Before leaving they put Camillas in a cot, in a locked room, sealing the door with an Arcane Lock. Giilos grabs the Book of Days, but Sioned refuses to touch the thing.

Late in the second day Giilos is shocked, he becomes certain that one of the young scions of House Cinder, accompanying Tamarak, is Rook. Once he points it out everyone can see the similarity, Shahmar is definitely Rook, or will become Rook some day.

The group works hard during the negotiations with the Death Giant Gorodzh to make Shahmar look good to his family. They succeed handily and Emril appoints Shahmar to remain and handle details and logistics while the rest of the group returns to Gloomwrought. Our heroes remain with Shahmar at Castle Gorodzh. The next few days are hectic, but Shahmar rises to the challenge brilliantly, he is a very driven young optimist with a bright future ahead of himself. (or so he thinks)

Shahmar also turns out to be quite the idealist, and very much a good and lawful person. He is horrified at the treatment of the Dark Ones by their master Gorodzh and must act. He has a plan to escape and warn Gloomwrought of the nature of their new trading partner, but is convinced by Sioned and Giilos to instead work with them in instigating a rebellion by the slaves.

Convincing the Dark Ones to rebel proves no easy task. Mitya spends time sneaking around the castle looking for weaknesses in Gorodzh’s defenses. Rook eventually notices that the Dark Creeper named Skrillik seems to be a leader and points that out. Giilos tries to prove how powerful the group is, but Skrillik doesn’t scare easily (no surprise for an elder Dark One in service to a Death Giant). Sioned’s silver tongue, on the other hand, does the trick and Skrillik agrees to help sneak the party into Castle Gorodz for an attempt on Gorodzh’s life. Picking the lock to Gorodzh’s inner sanctum takes a good amount of time and effort, so Rook ends up getting into a fight to distract guards, this succeeds in buying Mitya the time needed to break into Gorodzh’s inner-sanctum.

Gorodzh is defended by an Iron Golem. He’s a much tougher fight than the last, but can’t stand against the power of the four epic heroes facing him once the golem is down. After the fight Mitya leaves some graffiti expounding on how awesome he is, and how much of a wuss Gorodzh was, this will have repercussions once the Death Giants read it.

Following Gorodzh’s death there is a vicious civil war between the Dark Ones. Some wish to continue following their Death Giant “Gods”, we’ll call them “tories”, while others desperately want freedom, we’ll call them “Patriots”. Rather than continue the war Skrillik leads the “patriots” away from the castle, towards Gloomwrought and freedom. Along the way everyone stops at the House of Blue Lanterns to rest up. While there Mitya manages to get some gambling going, that little guy ain’t nothin’ but trouble. During the game Skrillik wins big, REALBIG, like “Wow, I can’t possibly pay that debt, could I just sign over ownership of this inn to you and call it even?” big. (one could also view this as the players winning big, but Skrillik doesn’t know that)

Rook dies, and is resurrected. While dead he begins the journey every soul must take, and finds himself in the Land of the Dead (Nerull’s Realm). His soul is pulled back by the ritual Camillas and Sioned undertake.

Whilst undertaking the ritual Akalabeth conducts several magical experiments. She determines that she could take over the Cage, and thereby control it’s portals. When Sioned and Camillas are finally free she relates this. Sioned works hard to convince her not to do so, because she’ll be trapped for eternity in the Cage, and Akalabeth agrees to hold off (for now). More usefully, Akalabeth has also determined how to open a portal from this side, though it only works on portals with some kind of power-linkage that reaches through them. (Sioned sealing a portal leaves traces of that power in the portal and proves a handy way of gaining the linkage needed) People do NOT relate this immediately to Grazzt.

A’kin returns to the group carried on a large litter by a horde of demons. He’s still badly broken, and about the only truly functional thing he has is his voice and cunning. (thankfully those are his most potent weapons) A’kin relates that he has gotten Gabberslug to agree to negotiate with the group, and will bring them to meet him.

While the devils are occupied Sioned, Mitya, Camillus, and Rook go to meet with Gabberslug. They may not have brought friends, but Gabberslug has definitely brought an army, a Waddling Horde in fact! The two sides meet across the empty space provided by a now-ruined city-square. The Horde surges forward when it smells Mitya, but is beaten back by Gabberslug who rides out to meet with Sioned on the back of a fearsome, demonic, lizardy-drake-ey beast he calls “The Kadyx”.

The negotiations take a while, and Gabberslug demands a bunch of things. But in the end he agrees to betray Baphomet and help the devils. In return he gets a permanent place of power in the Cage, plus magical warding against other demons, and a host of “perks”. (most of the perks are clearly just attempts by him to see how far he can push the party, and the answer is “pretty far, we need you”)

The battle goes entirely as predicted. The remaining three legions line up in battle-formation to face Baphomet’s army. The demons swarm forward in unstoppable masses, the center anchored by The Waddling Horde. When the sides clash both the devils and The Horde turn, each to one flank, and work together to slaughter the demons.

Following a great celebration Grazzt leads the legions back to Hell. He promises to return, for the Cage is the perfect marshalling point for Hell, but for now his lord (Asmodeus) needs him and his “men” desperately. He warns Sioned, who he’s getting some suspicious feelings about, that if she tries to keep him from the Cage he’ll see to it that she is trapped there and will never leave the place. (he thinks this is a terrifying threat and hopes to dissuade her from opposing him in the future) Giilos departs for Hell as well, alongside his legions. (his legionnaires have done extremely well in the battles in the Cage, well, those who survive the experience that is)

Akalabeth departs for The World, using the gate beneath where the House of A Thousand Doors will stand. Camillas, Sioned, Rook, and Mitya depart for the Shadowfell, using the gate Rook’s soul went through when he died (and using the link his soul’s passage provided to open said portal)

Arriving in the Shadowfell they exit out a wrought-iron gateway. They find themselves at a crossroads, with a hangman’s scaffold a bit down one road and nothing else in sight. The forces of the Shadowfell, objecting to the intruders, coalesce around them. Darkness infuses, and animates, the corpse on the scaffold which grows in size and moves to attack them. From both of the other two roads the dark power coalesces into a pair of famine spirits.

The fight itself is no particular challenge. Camillas handily locks down the Hangman Golem while the Famine Spirits are slain. No one takes much of any damage. (my dice were sooooo cold)

Some communication is gotten from Gabberslug that is nominally positive in nature. It seems that Baphomet had captured both A’kin and Mitya, and turned them over to Gabberslug. A’kin is recognized by Mitya when they’re both imprisoned together, and the two cut a deal that should get both free in time, it just involves being handed over to a powerful demon (Gabberslug). Despite the tastiness of the halfling the nalfeshnee swine-guards who pick up A’kin and Mitya bring him intact (with just a little drooling on their parts) to Gabberslug. Some violent negotiations ensue.

In an extra-dimensional space Akalabeth has conjured the heroes plus the three sisters (and Estevan & baby Alruna) rest up. During the rest Akalabeth reveals she is planning on seizing the Cage, so as to control it’s gates, Sioned works to try to convince her against that plan. Suddenly there is violence right near the entrance to their resting-space, nalfeshnee are tearing down the walls of the building they holed up in. They dump a badly wounded A’kin and a bound Mitya, as a present and depart. A’kin relates that he and Gabberslug have cut some kind of deal, mostly just one that would guarantee his and Mitya’s lives: Gabberslug did in fact wait out the attack on Orcus, and is now willing to consider helping Sioned et al, provided they can prove themselves worthy by slaying one of the two remaining demon-princes aspects and driving it’s army from the Cage.

There is some debate amongst everyone over the next step to take, but in the end agreement is reached that combining their forces with the infernal forces to destroy Demogorgon’s army is the right answer. (there is risk in this since it will leave the infernal army badly weakened, and free Baphomet’s forces from the constraint of needing to fight Demogorgon’s demons) The group then travels to where Grazzt, Glasya, and Fierna have encamped (with about 25,000 devils remaining).

Together there is agreement that something needs to be done, the infernals are still losing the war in the Cage. Consensus is that with the hero’s aid, and Akalabeth’s help, the infernal army can win a great battle, and with that agreement plans are put in motion. The infernal army musters, and marches on Demogorgon’s stronghold. Grazzt is as brilliant as his reputation claims and chooses an excellent battlefield to deploy on, Demogorgon is more crafty than hoped for but does come charging to the attack when taunted with Orcus’s rod sufficiently.

The Battle of the Cage (I) is nasty, and hard, and long. Sioned attempts to inspire the devils, but despite her silver-tongue they don’t really respond to her speech as strongly as she’d hoped. Camillas is more effective, her walls of ice prove critical to channeling demonic forces during two critical moments when the devils are at risk. Giilos proves tremendously effective, he joins the front line and fights side by side with the legions, rallying them when they flag and leading them onwards in when they charge. Mitya proves nearly as effective, sneaking past demonic lines to assassinate several demons in charge of largely-mindless forces, without their leaders those formations readily break and flee.

In the end it all comes down to one moment though. The moment when, ground down to maybe 15,000 remaining “men” Grazzt’s army faces certain doom. The battle is at it’s most violent, dust, noise, chaos, all obscure what is going on. Rook somehow manages to spot the final demonic thrust before it lands. A marilith general has spotted a weak-point in the devilish lines, a gap between two units that if exploited will break the battle line. Like Alexander at Gaugemela the moment she sees the opportunity she, and her hezrou retinue, charge it!

Surrounded by thousands of demons and devils the heroes are now all that stand between the army of Grazzt and certain defeat.

The fight is brutal. The hezrou are very tough, and their bites are extremely nasty. But it’s the marilith who really dominates. When she raises a shroud of steel around her, whirling her blades so fast they can barely be seen, she is almost impossible to hit. Additionally her ability to dance forward, striking multiple times proves deadly; she initially hammers Rook, planning to take Mitya down following him, but Rook just won’t drop. Even her weapon dance isn’t quite enough, but the marilith has another trick up her sleeve and she connects on the back-swing shrouding him with steel. (and slaying him outright) The remainder of the fight doesn’t get any easier after Rook dies.

With the death of the marilith, and her retinue, the battle is no longer in real doubt. Grazzt sends Glasya around the flank to pin the remaining demons in place and uses Fierna to hammer them into the dust of the Cage. Having slain a good quarter of a million demons, at the cost of almost half the remaining infernal army, everyone retreats to the devil’s camp to rest for the next day.

During that rest Rook is raised from the dead. (though the cost is brutal, no one has enough reagents or residuum on hand so they have to disenchant the Rod of Orcus that they were hoping to keep as a trophy) Everyone now wonders what Gabberslug will do; if he turns stag and helps Sioned’s forces even the mere 15,000 troops the devils have will probably win a fight with Baphomet, but if Gabberslug sides with the demon prince there is no chance in Hell that a mere three legions (cobbled together from the remains of ten legions, so not trained up together) can possibly survive.

The next day will surely bring a Great Betrayal, though who Gabberslug betrays will determine whether the result is a glorious victory or a complete defeat.

Our Heroes, Sioned, Giilos, Rook, and Camillas, discuss current events with Glasya and Fierna. The discussion breaks down fairly evenly along two sides. Fierna wants to press the enemy aggressively, if the party of heroes can slay Orcus aspect the fight will be more evenly matched. Glasya wishes to consolidate territory and regroup with Grazzt’s survivors, if there are any. The group twists; Rook has no opinion, but Sioned, Giilos, and Camillas all waver from one side to the other.

It becomes apparent that both Glasya and Fierna have a plan, but are reticent to speak it, much less commit to it, as it has low odds of them surviving it. But if they both fall back towards Grazzt, and then aggressively press an attack on Orcus with their forces they may regroup with successfully and also distract Orcus’s forces. If they can be distracted there’s good odds that Giilos and the other three might be able to penetrate Orcus’s stronghold and attack his very aspect. (unspoken by the group is that this may also allow them to close the gate to the Abyss that is feeding Orcus’s army reinforcements)

There is much debate, but in the end Giilos (lies) asserts that he has authority, as he has the hellfire and is strong. Fierna and Glasya both accept his speech inspiring them to sacrifice their forces, and possibly themselves, for the greater good and for their allies. It is becoming very obvious by now that this close to “The Fall” the devils are still just angels of a god of Good, Order, and War, that have been cursed with fiendish forms, they have yet to be corrupted by the power of the Seed of Evil.

As Camillas holes up with Sioned to begin some magical preparations “the Girls” head towards Grazzt’s last known position with their forces. A combination of powerful magic, mixed with some good old-fashioned stealth and perception, allows the group to out-run anything they can’t avoid. Soon they come up against the gates of a fortified position, a great “wall” of rubble and fallen walls behind which they know the gate to the Abyss resides. Guarding it is a huge undead monstrosity the aspect of Orcus has raised up in his defense. The Bone Collector proves a cunning foe, retreating away from open positions to defend it’s gate from behind, but not even that saves it.

Searching quickly Rook finds the group a hidden place in a ruined attic to take a few minutes and rest up. Below they can hear, and occasionally see, masses of Abyssal ghouls, hungry and corrupted by Orcus’s power. With some magics to aid them, some stealth and some flat-out-running alongside a few quick and bloody skirmishes gets the group past a massive amount of ghouls and deep into a sub-Sigilan lair.

There they find a Deathpriest Heirophant, and the Aspect of Orcus which he has called to the Cage. (since it’s unguarded at the moment) A number of ghouls are also present. Camillas opens by cutting the battlefield down to size with a wall of ice. Orcus strides forward and engages, the heirophant maneuvers to get close to the party where his necromantic aura can weaken their defenses. Most of the ghouls die quickly, but the heirophant utters a blasphemous word, the Word of Orcus, and stuns a number of people for a time. Much use is got of pushing enemies into the gate to the Abyss, which might be one-way-in but still has a nasty damaging effect. Even after the ghouls and the heirophant are slain the battle runs for a long time (much longer than we play out). Orcus is a damn tough customer, but with Sioned’s magic, supplemented by her forge-mail’s enchantments, the outcome is in no doubt; Orcus simply can’t hit hard enough to overcome her healing magic.

Once Orcus is slain Sioned gets down to the business of examining the gate to the Abyss. She connects to it in the same way she connected to the one that used to house the Bone Gate, through the pain inside her. Using that pain she cuts away the power that sustains the gate, closing it, for now. Before she can finish the job there is an unexpected consequence, from the depths of the Abyss something climbs upwards, riding her power across the portal. Razorvine erupts from the gate before being cut-off and withering as it closes. Razorvine also climbs up from ground beneath Sioned’s feet and winds it’s way up her legs and torso, enveloping and cutting her ever so briefly (and sharply) before it too withers and is brushed away.

Following the initial fight Gabberslug departs, suspiciously the halfling who had fallen through time and been caught by Sioned goes missing at just about the same time. . . .. .

More important is the fact that there is a large oni with a massive two-handed sword pointing it at our heroes. Despite appearances it turns out to be Estevan, it would also appear that over the centuries between now and “later” he changes substantially. The heroes try to convince Estevan, Y’larra, Akalabeth, and Akasha to work with them. Akalabeth seems to be mostly in charge, though it’s clear Estevan doesn’t take orders from her where the safety of his charge (Y’larra) is concerned. Akalabeth doesn’t fully trust Sioned, or her friends, but agrees to travel with them until they can hole up somewhere.

Once the two groups are further from the ongoing battle, which the demons seem to be winning, they stop to assess the situation. Sioned plays things pretty straight up, telling Estevan and Akalabeth most of the truth, the only thing she keeps close to her vest is that she is the Lady of Pain and will be taking over the Cage. The two groups agree to work together to try to figure a way out of the Cage; Akalabeth and her sisters will stay hidden and she’ll try some arcane tests to see what she can do, Sioned and her “crew” will go to see if they can deal with the portals.

After determining the nearby portal to the Abyss’s location, and realizing it is under the control of Orcus, the group heads out into the streets. They manage to make their way across enough of the city to make it to where the House of a Thousand Doors will stand, in the future. The journey is perilous, as the streets are filled with demons harrying retreating devilish forces. They approach what is clearly a fortified battle-line, and Rook searches out an unseen route through it. Now in devil-controlled territory they avoid a few patrols before finding the location of the House of a Thousand Doors.

Rook searches the area, after everyone discovers that the location itself isn’t important, and discovers a passage to Under-Sigil (sometimes named Ligis). Below the House they find where the Bone Gate was first assembled, and the bodies of the dabus who died to empower it. But the Bone Gate is gone, and while Sioned can close the portal that leads in to it, she decides not to do so at this point in time.

Also near the gate is a copy of the Book of Days. It seems Njalla has been lost in time, a split-second out of phase from reality. She can see our world, but can’t interact with it. Running low on food, and magic, she tries a ritual to send things across her “gap”, but the Book of Days is a powerful artifact and it’s magic messes with her ritual resulting in a copy of it appearing where Rook will find it, near the Bone Gate. Camillas duplicates her ritual, and the group sends Njalla several weeks of food and water, as the book records her saying she’s running low. It’s clear Njalla is watching them, and can communicate (one-way) by writing in the book. (though given the amount of space in the book, and ink that Njalla has, it’s clear only important messages should be sent via this route)

Having exhausted the possibilities at their current location they return to the streets of the cage to discover that the devil’s fortifications have been over-run. The devils are in full retreat, pursued by masses of demons. Now that Sioned knows how to close the gates consensus is to depart the area and attempt to find Orcus’s gate to the Cage, and close it.

This time the streets are even more chaotic, the fall of the devil’s battle-line has resulted in very dangerous streets. The group begins to move back towards the meeting place w. Akalabeth, to confer prior to assaulting Orcus’s gate, but fails to entirely avoid trouble.

Rook hears conflict to the front of the group, and they spot a battle line of devils holding against demons for the moment. They try to route around them, but a pair of armanites and a handful of lesser demons burst out from some ruins and threaten to hit the devilish battle-line in it’s rear, which will surely shatter it. The group attacks.

Camillas goes first, and ensures the safety of the devils by raising a wall of ice to stop the charge of the demons. Most of the lesser demons fall quickly, but the armanites are tough customers. Camillas gets caught in the front lines and takes a beating but doesn’t drop before Sioned and friends dispatch the demons.

Before anyone can get a rest in the wall of ice explodes as multiple bursts of hellfire hit it, from the other side. The devils have held the field, and now turn to our heroes seeking . . . . information. Furthermore it would seem that they aren’t just some little skirmishing force, leading them is a badly beaten up un-powered Fierna. (Giilos can practically smell how low her reserves of hellfire are, she positively doesn’t glow from inside with the flames of hell, like she normally does.)

Giilos takes point in this conversation, and mostly stalls Fierna until he gets close enough to seize her in his arms and kiss her. (fulfilling her demand that the next time they met he would “kiss instead of kill” her) The touch of fresh hellfire ignites Fierna, and she starts to suck power from Giilos. Rather than hold onto all his power he willingly let’s her pull hellfire from him. Rekindled Fierna now practically blazes with power, she cries out to the darkened skies and another force of devils descends to join everyone, this force led by Glasya. A scandalous scene involving Fierna and Glasya ensues, during which she rekindles Glasya’s hellfire reserves and everyone realizes that they are closer to each other than people had previously thought.

Conversation with the two devilish forces reveals a number of things.

1. The devils are losing, badly.
2. The fallen battle-line was defending the last infernal stronghold, held by Grazzt. With it’s fall control of the sole portal from Hell has now fallen to demonic forces.
3. Glasya and Fierna have been on the run, behind the demon lines, and are pretty much destroyed as battle-field forces. (their armies are broken, all that remain are basically the command troops)
4. Three portals lead into the Cage from the Abyss. Orcus controls one, Demogorgon and Baphomet control the other two.
5. With the three demonic generals victorious, and the three infernal generals on the run (and in Grazzt’s case probably out of hellfire as well), control of the Cage will Very Soon Now be Abyssal. (so if Sioned wants to own the Cage, she’d best move on that soonest)

Mitya, a long history of violence leading straight towards the End of The World….. Well, it wasn’t intentional, more just a case of “wrong portal, to the wrong place, at the wrong time”. Suffice to say that without the Lady of Pain saving him Mitya would have been a think, pink-red, mist when the Well of Souls hit The Cage, as it was he was merely flung out of time and space . . . .

Speaking of “outside of time and space”, Camillas Bail was exactly there. She’d arranged for a host of help in building her own plane, and everything was going perfectly! It stopped being perfect when the Seed of Evil flowered, and the resulting beam of power shattered her plane to nothing-ness. Only the clever use of a wish allowed her to be plucked up by the beam and thrown at The Cage, and only the Lady of Pain was fast enough (and close enough) to help. Camillas, like Mitya, ended up thrown out of time and space, but she survived!

Rook was blown to bits in a World-Shattering Kaboom! (along with a lot of the world) Thankfully the Raven Queen was around to grab him and rebuild him. She blessed him, remade him, gave him a task (and a sword), and flung him backwards in time. (trusting Sioned to handle the terminal guidance)

Giilos was ready for the end of the World, there were plans in place for it in fact. The plans worked perfectly, and his magic surfed the shock-wave of reality being torn apart plucking his legions out of the House of a Thousand Doors and pulling them back through time alongside himself. In the end the turbulence was too great, and his “sight” far too limited, and his protective shield collapsed scattering his legions and himself into the void.

Sioned was also prepared for the End of the World, she and the Lady of Pain were counting on it. She spoke to the Lady, and was rebuilt by her, into her. She then plucked A’kin, Vaxis, and Njalla and brought them all back through time with her. When Giilos control over his travel was lost she even reached out and grabbed him, at the same time noticing and saving two other travellers (Mitya & Camillas). In the final chaos of the “landing” Njalla, Vaxis, and A’kin were all lost, they’ve landed somewhere “near” (like Giilos’s legions) but no one knows where or when, yet.

The five travellers fall out of the skies into the Cage of a few thousand years ago. The Cage is a wreck, literally. It has been battered and beaten as the Blood War rages across it. All it’s gates open, but only inwards. In a nearby city-square a great battle is setting up between the demons and devils, un-numbered hordes of demons charging across the open space towards their blood-enemies. Caught between the two forces, not too far from the group, are a young Y’larra, Akasha (cradling a baby Alruna in her arms), and Akalabeth (looking largely the same as always). Behind Y’larra stands a huge monster of an Oni bodyguard, a juggernaut of a warrior.

Before the group can do more than speak a few words they are assaulted. Amongst the demonic forces in the Cage are elements of the Waddling Hordes. So it is that a quartet of Nalfeshnee waddle towards them, before bellowing in hunger as they scent Mitya. (halflings are well-known to be THE favorite food of Nalfeshnee) Behind the four goons another Nalfeshnee waits, lurking, he tosses magical bolts and hammers people with psychic powers.

The battle goes well for the heroes. No-one is badly hurt by any of the enemies. In the end the eldest demon is the last one standing, arcane powers at the ready. Rook moves to attack . . .. . and recognizes that this demon is Gabberslug, who in the future saves Rook by judicious judicial action. Rook, backed by the rest of the group once they realize who Gabberslug is, allow him to surrender and depart.

In which our heroes fight off infernal assault, put on a play to catch the conscience of the King, agree to aid Gertrude in smuggling Hamlet away after the murder of Polonius, betray the King’s treachery towards Prince Hamlet, and wait in the cold darkness outside Elsinore for the morning to arrive…..

In the depths of Elsinore our heroes prepare to present a play of Prince Hamlet’s devising to the court that evening. He has explained that in the distant lands you come from this is considered acceptable noble behavior and that the presentation of an ancient tale from your lands is intended to flatter the King and the court. Everyone except Njalla notices the kitchen staff acting quite suspiciously, Njalla is busy working on magical FX for the play, so only the dwarven wizard is surprised when they transform into fiendish forms and attack!

The trio of shocktrooper devils do some pretty nasty things to people. A legion devil manages to pin down Njalla for a time. The passion devil is lamentable ineffective, though some damage does get redirected from one of his targets to another player. Once the shocktroopers start falling it’s soon all over however.

The play itself goes off nearly flawlessly. Njalla’s help in providing historical background for the script pays off. Sioned’s naration, while initially a little flat, improves and is perfection for the final act. Rook even manages a moderately believable performance as the king. But the play is stolen by Giilos portrayal of the treacherous brother, and by Alruna’s decision to go off-script since she could never portray a vile villainous like the character of the queen was written to be in the play. Despite the grand reception by the court in general King Claudius seems horrified, the King actually departs the court in an unseemly rush. Gertrude does reward the players with a gold ring each.

People scatter, most stay to receive the accolades due their performance. However the group is soon called to the Queen’s chambers where they confront her and Prince Hamlet in violent argument. Hamlet has failed to slay the King, who was in prayer when he found him, despite the “proof” of his guilt. However Hamlet HAS slain Polonius, who was in hiding in the Queen’s chambers. (he’s also accused his mother of killing his father) Rook vanishes away, to watch his target, Ophelia.

Gertrude bribes the group to guard Hamlet as she has him smuggled out of Elsinore down to a ship ready to sail for England. Claudius has agreed to write a letter of recommendation to his cousin King Ethelred (the unready) who will return Hamlet when things have cooled down, along with a great treasure as a bribe to the Danes to stop raiding England. The other four sneak out of Elsinore and head for the docks.

Rook follows Ophelia around for a bit, but she does not yet know of her father’s death and is thus not yet mad. The Shadow of the Raven Queen refuses to fall upon her as of yet. As he heads towards her house, after she departs court, he sees the party sneaking out of the castle and down to the docks. He stays on target, until he notices they are being followed. He tails the tails, and finds they take to the fjord in a fast rowing vessel and head out towards the sea, most likely an ambush. He then races for the ship, to warn his friends.

Aboard ship Sioned tries to hold the ship for Rook, but goes below with Prince Hamlet to examine Claudius’s letter. The ship eventually must pull out or miss it’s tide. As it drifts away into the darkness Alruna, Njalla, and Giilos see Rook racing down the dock. He leaps into a dive and hits the water ten feet in, stroking strongly for the ship. Lines are thrown, and he is brought aboard.

Belowdecks, really in a small cabin, Rook helps Sioned open the royal letter without leaving evidence. It is treacherous in nature, and tells Aethelred to kill Hamlet and return his body to the Danes for burial, in return Claudius will forgo the tribute for this year he would otherwise receive.

The group bribes the captain with their five gold rings from Gertrude to set them ashore and “just sail away”. The price is steep, but not unfair given the circumstances. Ashore they plan to return to Elsinore with the King’s letter as further proof of his crimes, and in court accuse him and depose him. (the Queen will be set aside to a nunnery or somesuch) Some preparatory scheming with nobles must take place first.

As they discuss details of the plan, and Rook eyes the woods (as he feels like his time is coming soon), a trio of gladiators and a dark and devilish form approach in the dark. Bursting forth from a nearby hedge of low trees three gladiators and their devilish employer charge to attack!

In which our heroes meet the Queen, negotiate trade agreements with Polonius (and meet the doomed Ophelia), battle ghostly monsters at Hamlet’s side, and aid in his deception of the court.

In the Shadowfell Rook awakes. He has a blurry memory of trying to fend off a demonic bear while a caravan fled. As always seems to be the case his death has attracted Akasha’s attention, she tells him that this time he must exact the price of a life for his life, and says he’ll know who he has to kill when he sees the Raven Queen’s shadow on the target.

She then tells him a tale as his body re-animates. She tells of a bargain between the Raven Queen and Bahamut to ensure that not even death could thwart “Justice”, as a price for her acceptance as a god. An ancient temple provides a gate to the mortal world, if a wronged ghost can fight it’s way to the temple they may return to the world for a time to seek justice. She points out a circle of standing stones, and a battle between a kingly spectre and foul ectoplasmic beasts taking place near a portal. Her magic rushes them to the scene.

At the gates of Castle Elsinore the party awaits the appearance of the ghost of King Hamlet. As he appears spectres also appear, and foul ectoplasmic oozes attempt to restrain the King. Rook also appears, to everyone but Sioned’s surprise, or maybe not so much. Battle ensues! Horatio and Marcellus fight nobly at Hamlet’s side, who charges the beast restraining his father’s ghost, but do little more than hold a battle line. Sioned and the party concentrate on the spectral oozes, which divide on being wounded. After a time Giilos moves to support the prince who rushes through the gate to the Shadowfell to speak with his father. By the time the sun rises Hamlet has returned to the world and everyone now knows the ghost’s tale of treachery and murder.

Hamlet exacts terrible oaths from everyone.

Through the morning Polonius and the PTC group bargain over trade agreements. It’s clear some potential exists, but will probably require the aid of the House of Rhea to facilitate since it will be bulk naval cargoes by planar-geographical necessity. During the negotiations Alruna and Ophelia spend some time together, and seem to become friends. Rook notices Ophelia is draped in shadows, shadows that feel like raven’s feathers, and correctly deduces he must kill her when the time is right. (which it is not yet)

Later that afternoon Sioned meets with the Queen. She, Alruna, and Njalla are permitted into the Queen’s chambers while she has a moment between events. The men are kept outside as the Queen only has the time while she changes her clothes with her handsmaids. The Queen warns the women that Hamlet seems to be going mad, but Sioned and Alruna convince Gertrude that Hamlet is merely besotted with Ophelia and is driven to distraction. The Queen seems to buy it. Njalla is obstreperous, but fails to royally piss off the Queen. Rook takes the time to go look over the house of Polonius, not quite casing it since he never gets inside. Giilos wanders the court briefly, before settling in to watch Prince Hamlet put on a show as he acts madly.

Rook and Giilos return to the waiting room outside the Queen’s chambers with a note from Hamlet for Sioned, via Marcellus. He arranges to meet with them clandestinely to discuss a plan. At the meeting, in an out-of-the-way corridor of Elsinore, Hamlet details how he’s been acting mad to draw out the King and Queen and gain freedom of action. But he needs proof, to convince the court of the King’s guilt. He has arranged to have a play put on, and as a performer he expects Sioned and her people to do it, the plot is cunningly arranged as a parable of Claudius’s murder of King Hamlet in the garden. If the player’s play their parts well enough he is sure Claudius will betray himself, and thus give away the game.

The “players” depart Hamlet, to a room deep in Castle Elsinore where they may practice and rehearse. Unbeknownst to them infernal forces are mobilizing against them, and soon will come to a head. Asmodeus’s agent has no intent of letting all her schemes to take over the Daneland come to naught because of some interloping planar agent . . .. .

Following some paperwork and wrap-up debriefing by Mikos and Estevan everyone departs the cage for a bit. Giilos takes a bit to think about it, and about how far along Mikos is in his research and comes along for the ride. Nothing important happens as the group travels The Land for a few months.

(Oh, Rook does get killed gruesomely during caravan duty down near Plague Mort, the gate-town to the Abyss. It goes something like, “Exeunt Rook, stage left, pursued by a {demonic} bear!”, followed by gruesome sound effects from off-stage and a closed-casket funeral for what isn’t eaten. Because Quentin Tarentino I’m not.)

So after nothing important happens our four heroes find themselves wandering the deep forest near Tradegate. They are going to see Sylvith, who will open a gate to a distant land for them. Estevan wishes to re-establish trade to this kingdom, it has been some time since he sent goods to and from there and he hopes there might be profit around.

The four heroes make their way through the dense underbrush, peering through pea-soup-thick fog, and approach Sylvith’s hut at the base of the World’s Tree. As they approach they see three figures, Njalla hangs back watchfully as the others come closer. The three figures call out as Sioned approaches, hailing her as (first) “Thane of the Thousand Doors”, then as “Daughter of Tradegate”, and finally as “Lady who Was and Will Be.”

It would seem Sylvith keeps interesting company for, though no one recognizes her, the demon-lady present is in fact the Lady Y’larra and the third figure is the Fury (un-named by anyone) Alecto. Speaking with a Divine Voice the fury Alecto charges Sioned to avenge for her a crime most foul, and set aside the otherwise grievous consequences this act would entail. Not accustomed to refusing gods to their face, and perhaps suspecting Estevan’s is colluding with the god (which would be accurate), Sioned agrees to right whatever wrong has aroused the Furies to action. The three “hags”, technically only Sylvith is a hag though the other two are surely terrifyingly inhuman in their own ways, then send Sioned and her companions to The World’s Tree where they have opened a gate.

There is an odd aside as Lady Y’larra asks after Alruna in what seems to be an oddly affectionate manner. She claims to have known Alruna’s mother, and misses her. Y’larra goes so far as to ask Alruna to give her good will to her mother should she see her again, and tell her that Y’larra continues to wait patiently for the time to come when that will happen.

Exiting the gate the four plane-travellers appear in a beshadowed corner, near a guard-post before a great castle’s battlements. As they watch two guards meet, and greet each other as liegemen of “The Dane”. Challenged, the group declares that they come in peace and seek to speak with the king, Bernado and his companion allow them their arms but charge them to await the arrival of their officers.

From in the town surrounding the castle come two gentlemen, Marcellus and Horatio. They speak with Sioned, and agree to examine her case more closely and perhaps convey them to the royal family if such is suitable, but first all must await the dawn for they are here upon a mission. The previous night a ghostly figure did appear, and Horatio and Marcellus have come to see if it will re-appear and what it’s will is.

Almost upon these words a ghostly feeling arises, the hair upon people’s necks rises, as the Shadowfell becomes closer to the world. A ghostly portal opens, and within the living can see a noble, kingly, ghost struggling mightily with spectral figures. He strives to reach the living, and the dead strive to prevent him doing so. Remarking it is the old king Marcellus and Horatio draw swords, specters appear to confront the mortals and battle ensues.

One of the guards is slain outright, burned to death by spectral flames. Bernardus, Marcellus, and Horatio are all wounded in the fight despite the officers liberal use of inspiring words. When the fight is over and their wounds tended the three will awake, Horatio (head in Alruna’s lap, as she has been tending his wounds) makes some flip comment about how he’d never encompassed such beauty as hers in his philosophies. (over the rest of the day it will become apparent that Horatio is somewhat stricken with his nurse)

Thinking of the ghost first, and Sioned’s trade mission (which has several oddities involved in it), Marcellus charges the group not to speak of what they have seen until the prince of the Danes (son of the ghost in question) is told of things and can evaluate the situation, people agree. The four, plus Marcellus and Horatio, then proceed to the house of a noble man. There they stand around for a bit while Polonius acts the pompous windbag that he is. While they wait they are introduced to Prince Hamlet, who is most interested in pursuing information about both trade and the ghost, but also charges them to speak to none of the ghost until he has investigated it himself the following morning.

Polonius proves, in a quite locquacious manner, to be very interested in trade and after brief conversation on the topic agrees to meet with Sioned over more details later. (he is the King’s seneschal) Later in the day the Queen, Gertrude, is introduced to the group but is too busy to do more than desire them to attend upon her the following day when she hopes to have to speak at more length with them.

The first act ends (unlike the canonical play) just prior to the next morning. Upon the dark, cold, and windy, battlements of Elsinore we set our pieces: Hamlet, Sioned, and their companions Alruna, Horatio, Njalla, Marcellus, and Giilos. As the wind whips chills up and down the spines of all mortals so foolish as to be abroad on such a night a ghostly light begins to appear . . . .

The fight with the astral giants is no cakewalk. But Njalla’s use of a stinking cloud turns the tide in the end despite the warpsword’s teleportation powers. After all three warpswords die in a single turn the, mostly undamaged, javelineer flies away and retreats once out of sight.

When the Blue Wheel Clan returns there are some acrimonious moments. Alruna’s obvious allegiance to Erathis combined with the astral giants use of her name lead Jovail to first implore the group to help the clans of Shom (which Sioned blows off as not relevant to her mission), and then to accuse Alruna and Sioned of spying for Erathis. The two groups part on less than friendly, though not openly hostile, terms.

Again Sioned tries to summon the giant eagles, once the Blue Wheel Clan departs with their dead, but again she is interrupted. The ground begins to shake and people are convinced that something is burrowing upwards from underground. The party quickly marches away towards the hills the are between them and their exit point. Behind them, Serakith (a lich in Vecna’s service) and undead forces arise from the sand as their magic opens a route to the surface.

Marching over dunes Alruna, watching behind them, sees what looks like a flying black road approach. On the road are several undead, it “lands” on the other side of a low dune from the party. On contact with the earth the road vanishes in a burst of necrotic magic that turns a sixty-foot diameter circle of sand pure black, everyone decides that perhaps the party shouldn’t walk on the circle.

The battle with Serakith and her ghouls is nasty. Alruna tangles with an abyssal ghoul as she clears the dune’s ridgeline. Rook tries to clear the ridgeline but is stopped by a ghoul devourer, and then is hammered by Serakith’s magics and combined fire from the remnants of several weaker liches that are under her command, he drops. Njalla and Alruna take some hammering from the lich remnants, and nearly drop as well. But in the end the ghouls are slain, and following them several of the liches fall. Serakith is the last to fall, and as she evaporates (to reform from her phylactery back in her lair) she swears that neither she nor Vecna will forget this affront and promises divine (and arcane) vengeance to the party.

Thus endeth the run.

Following another short rest Sioned will finally succeed in summoning the giant eagles, and the group will fly back to the portal to the Cage without further interruption. On arrival in Sigil there is a bit of a staredown with the Lady of Pain when the group first steps into the streets of the Cage, but no bystanders are slain by her shadow so “no harm, no foul”, right?

(Estevan will take the bones, and reward everyone with gifts of magic and coin. He’ll be happy to evade questions at the start of the next run. . . . .)

Guarding the entrance to the tower that contains the Library of Kas are a force of angels. Veteran angels of valor move up to engage the players, backing them angels of protection guard an angel of battle, all show the heraldry and marks of their allegiance to Vecna openly. The angel of battle, and some angels of protection, push past the party front lines and engage Njalla and Sioned, Alruna holds some back, but in the end the battle goes to the heroes.

Exiting up a back staircase the party enters the library proper. Within they discover more signs that time has been stopped inside of the tower. They also discover that the library is twisted up in time and space, and that navigating it is not an easy task. After hours of evaluation and searching Njalla manages to decipher the patterns of the library enough to progress the party up to the uppermost level, where they find a secret door with a stair leading upwards.

The stair proves to be trapped, and turns into a slippery slide that deposits everyone back down in the library again. Rook takes several tries to climb back up to the trap, but fails to disarm it. Eventually he succeeds in progressing to the top and eats poisoned arrows as he opens the door at the top of the stairs. The poison fails to slay him, as do the arrows themselves, and eventually he and Alruna succeed in hauling the rest of the group up with ropes.

Atop the stairs the group finds themselves in a finely appointed set of private rooms. As in the library time is clearly being held in abeyance; candles have not burned down and even the water in the bath is still hot. Another staircase leads them further upwards, to a magical laboratory.

In the lab they discover the inter-planar nexus in question. It appears to be a gateway in constant flux that is held together by powerful magic centered in a pyramidal object that glows to brightly to get a clear view of. They loot various notes and books from the lab, and grab a portrait from the quarters below that they believe is Kas. In the end, after more examination and taking of notes, they decide to grab the nexus engine at the center of the gate when Giilos notices that a portal is beginning to form. (they fear that Vecna has noticed their work and they don’t relish what might be sent at them)

The nexus engine proves to be a set of six long bones. When removed from the gateway it collapses, and the magic holding back time from the tower begins to collapse as well. The party flees the tower as it falls apart around them. (later examination will reveal that the portrait and all the books/notes they took have also fallen to dust as time catches them up)

Hours of work clearing rubble and sand away finally allow the party to break through to the surface after the tower’s fall collapses their original entrance to the ruins. They take a short rest and then prepare to summon the giant eagles for a return flight to their exit portal. They are interrupted by a group of tribal humans who come upon them mid-ritual. Jovail seems a competent leader and commands the “Blue Wheel Clan”, as they call themselves. The group and the clan share food and water, and talk. (mostly of how the clans have been vanishing unexpectedly) The group passes on to the Blue Wheel Clan word of the new entrance to the ruins below, which the clan plans to explore more in the future.

Suddenly a gate opens near the encamped parties. Giants, armed and armored as a civilized nation, burst out of the gate and with a bellowed “In the name of Erathis cleanse the rebel scum!” charge into battle!

In the House of a Thousand Doors Sioned, Rook, Alruna, and Njalla meet with Estevan and a pair of spellslingers. Mikos is a well respected wizard specializing in portals and inter-planar magics, his apprentice of some time Giilos is a more physically oriented “blast ’em” sort. Mikos and Estevan are engaged in attempting to create an inter-planar nexus and Estevan has agreed to support Mikos and Giilos’s work. Sioned is to accompany Giilos to Shom, and there research an existant inter-planar nexus in the Library of Kas. They are to take various readings, nab any books/notes, and steal anything particularly useful to Mikos and Estevan from the ruins.

On the way to the Friendly Fiend to purchase a gate-key from Akin they fall afoul of a street gang of githyanki bent on extorting passers-by. The fight is not particularly notable, except perhaps as an indication that no trip in Sigil is to be viewed as safe or a “sure-thing”.

Akin bargains with the group, he seems more partial to Sioned but again it’s remarkable that he seems immune to her otherwise considerable charms. He sells them a key to a gate in the undercity of the Cage, the entrance to which is near the Trianon in the Lady’s Ward. He also bargains with them, offering to reward them if they can bring him a portrait of Kas from the library.

Before departing the Cage the group decides to research Shom a bit more, hoping to determine if the gate they have a key for is anywhere near the Library of Kas. (and if it isn’t to work on finding out how to locate in once they arrive in Shom) For a purely nominal fee (for Sioned’s purse at least) they buy access to a private library housed in the Explorer’s Society of Jalefina (Jalefina is a prime somewhere). It indicates that the Library of Kas was once found in a city that lies just a few day’s travel over some badlands from the gate in question.

Satisfied with their route the party proceeds to the undercity and opens the gate, with a small silver statue sold them by Akin. In Shom Sioned quickly casts some travel rituals and the group takes to the skies, soaring over the low dunes and hills. Searching out the ruined city proves to be exhausting work as the desert heat and sun take their tolls on people’s endurance. After half a day’s search they locate ruins half-buried in the sands of Shom. Hours of hard work digging away sand and stone result in a passage down a ruined tower to a buried complex of half-collapsed rooms and passages. Njalla manages to decipher several runic inscriptions that lead the party to the tower that once housed the Library of Kas, but it takes Rook’s clever fingers to pick the lock on the massive steel doors that lead into the tower.

Having returned to Tradegate the group now splits up. Master Pizarro tells people he has found that Ioun’s library in Hestavar likely contains useful information of the creatures from the Far Realm that are attacking the PTC. Njalla immediately heads out to look into it for him, Alruna accompanies her as a guide and guard.

Meanwhile Sioned and Rook depart for Sum of All after informing Master Trader Duncam of the possible deal regarding shields, Rigus, and Havelek. He agrees to pass the information on to Melina, who will find a way to make the trade route work if it’s possible. Sioned then buys herself and Rook passage on a ship coasting along the shore line anti-spinward.

A few days travel has them departing the ship in the town of Darel Sun, and the mouth of the River Ma’at. Three days of relatively uneventful barging up the Ma’at have them reaching the mouth of the river at the sea of Tir Fo Thuinn. From there it’s a quick sacrifice to Mananan Mac Lir and the peope who live under the waves of Tir Fo Thuinn to the other side, and then a quick hike over hills to the city Sum of All.

In Sum of All Sioned seeks out an expert on draconic matters to help her with the approach to Varsivoraax. Kalika is a tall and dark-skinned human, and an expert on dragons. He tells her and Rook the tale of “Lord Io and the Seeds of Evil” and how the Spire was created in the early days of the world. He explains how the dragon kingdom is at the base of the spire as a result of this story. Somewhat more informed Sioned and Rook set out from Sum of All, heading In towards the Spire and the kingdom of the dragons.

Several days pass as they navigate The Land and approach the Spire. A few days away from the Spire they first encounter sign of the Dragon Kingdom in the form of a patrol of kobolds that they handily avoid. However overflights of dragons spot them and direct another patrol towards them.

The next day a patrol of 15 dragonborn stop Sioned and Rook. They explain their purpose, and Charask (the leader of the patrol) agrees to take them in to the “city” of Sivariss, though he believes their mission impossible. As everyone beds down that evening Rook and some of the dragonborn spar, Rook does fairly well and impresses the patrol with his skills.

In Sivariss they are brought before Charask’s master, a young red dragon named Altair. Altair outright forbids Sioned or Rook to even approach Varsivoraax. Sioned and Rook assert that they will speak with the ancient dragon and that Altair has no place in things. (assertions, not negotiations, seem to be the way of the dragons) Altair and Sioned agree that neither is going to back down and arrange a duel to resolve the conflict.

The duel is setting up in the great Speaking Bowl (a huge open meadow in a low valley which the dragons use like an auditorium) when a huge silver dragon named Nicosidia lands and forbids the duel. He says that today is a holy day and no blood may be spilled in this manner in Sivariss. He forces the duelists and spectators through a gate to a lightly wooded meadow where they can fight and not offend tradition.

The duel is over quickly. Altair, while bigger than both other combatants combined, lacks the skill and experience needed to even land a shot regularly. He gets in a lucky hit, but is quickly bloodied and forced to withdraw from the challenge.

Nicosidia steps forward, metaphorically, and objects to Sioned waking Varsivoraax. His objections lie in prophecy, not pride, it is said that Varsivoraax will wake but twice more before he rises a third time at the end of the world. Sioned isn’t thrilled at the apocalyptic news but sticks to her guns. Another duel is fought, this time between a golem created by Nicosidia and the pair of “man-things”. This fight is much harder, even Nicosidia’s proxy (the golem) is tough. Sioned is dropped in the fight and nearly dies, though Nicosidia heals her with a prayer to Bahamut as soon as Rook finishes off the golem.

He then flies them both up the spire some distance and into the mouth of a gigantic cave. The stench of dragon fills the air. Nicosidia bows out of going further into the great dragon’s lair and curls up at the entrance to await whatever happens to Sioned and Rook. They both begin to enter the lair.

Varsivoraax’s lair is another test of greed for those who enter it. Scattered across the floor are piles of gold and silver, magic items are strewn about, and lying atop it all (with hindquarters luxuriating in the heat of a lava pool) is a massive red dragon. When Sioned approaches Varsivoraax scents the air, and wakes.

Varsivoraax seems to believe himself indebted to Sioned, and readily agrees to give her the Heart Bone as a down payment on that debt. He tells her he doesn’t have it himself though, three hags snuck in and stole it decades ago, he followed their scent to the Well of the Moon, but has not yet reclaimed it. He says he’s pleased to see Sioned one more time before the world ends, and then goes back to sleep.

Nicosidia doesn’t seem surprised when the two emerge, clearly he’s heard everything that went on inside. He flies the pair down the Spire and into Sivariss. In the great Speaking Bowl he orders Altair to fly the two to the Well of the Moon and help retrieve the Heart Bone.

You would think that the journey would make a story of it’s own, but when a flight of dragons (Altair doesn’t really trust Sioned and Rook not to kill him if he flies them out alone) drop a pair of adventurers (paragons of their professions no less) even a trio of magical hags will readily give up a not-so-prized possession rather than risk their lives (and prophecy) in battle.

Sioned and Rook return to Tradegate to return the Heart Bone to Estevan.

In Sum of All Njala has been doing research for Estevan, seeking the “Heart of Bone”. In the course of her work in the Library of Mirrors she finds herself working closely with Master Plo. Together they determine that the Heart is most likely possessed by an ancient wizard by the name of Akalabeth. Immediately, on exiting the Library, Njalla is accosted by Estevan. Together they send word to Sioned to use her scroll, opening a gate from her location to a safe circle in Sum of All that Estevan knows, Njalla goes through to join Sioned.

She informs Sioned that the contract to fill is but a ploy, designed to conceal Sioned’s true activity. Sioned is to return the Heart of Bone to Estevan. (the letter Estevan gave Sioned when she left Tradegate, with instructions not to open it until Havelek, says much the same)

Nonetheless the four proceed onwards to Havelek, and Sioned pursues her cover-story by asking around about the shields. Her questions attract official notice however, and a young shifter (Lt. Sheearnow) brings her to the Castle. There she speaks with an agent of Duke Myaravan, agent Nyar interrogates Sioned about her mission to Havelek and about Rigus. In the end he decides that moving an army from Rigus to Havelek isn’t terribly feasible, and says that if she wishes to pursue the issue further the Duke would be happy to help her out. As she’s carrying 75,000 gold in “walking around money” it’s clear there’s some profit to be made if delivery to Rigus can be made in a manner which does not expose Havelek’s involvement.

After departing the city and going to the mausoleum containing passage to the Shadowfell Rook swims down the pool linking the two worlds. Emerging from the icy waters into the cave in the Shadowfell he secures a rope to help the others pass through. The noise attracts attention however, and as the party dries themselves off a pride of vampires attacks. The lesser spawn fall fairly easily, but the night-witches prove quite dangerous and the Mistress Vampire manages to escape the group.

Outside the cave people prepare to move on as quickly as possible, fearing a return of the Mistress Vampire with new allies to help her. Sioned summons Phantom Steeds to speed them towards Akalabeth’s tower. However the dark, Shadowfell, night proves too difficult to navigation and morning finds our heroes still a good distance from The Black Tower.

After an exhausting ride they reach The Black Tower and speak with Akalabeth. She’s in a fair mood, and doesn’t threaten to eat anyone. Akalabeth agrees to help, in return for oaths that they will save the life of her sister at some point in the future. She tells them that she lent the Heart to an old friend some time ago.

Thus it is that Akalabeth directs them to seek out the dragon Varsivoraax. They are to ask him to give the Heart to them instead of returning it to her in the future. Akalabeth then sells them a scroll to open a planar portal, and the reagents to fuel the spell, and the four bamf back to the warded circle in Master Pizarro’s House in Tradegate.

In Tradegate Pizarro tells them he knows of Varsivoraax. He is an ancient dragon, from early in the history of The Land, and is fearsomely dangerous. He’s the sort of red dragon who when awoken changes the world, kingdoms have fallen when his wings shadowed them. Pizarro returns them to Sum of All again, for the dragon lairs on The Spire itself. From Sum of All the group can set out to climb The Spire and seek the lair of Varsivoraax.

Month’s pass. Pieter departs for Port Liberty. Njalla goes to Sum of All, doing research for Master Pizarro. Rook returns for a time to the Dustmen. Meanwhile Alruna and Sioned pal around The Land doing busy-work, and making profits.

After a time Rook, Sioned, Alruna, and Estevan meet up once again in Tradegate. Estevan has an old map he wishes Sioned to investigate, it is a planar map showing a three-jump route from Rigus to Havelek. Estevan gives Sioned the map, and a scroll, and tells her that she is to fill a contract for the Rigan legions in Havelek, to whit she is to get 25,000 large shields from there. The shield will equip new Rigan legions for the upcoming campaign against Ribcage, and if the route to Havelek is viable the pricing could be profitable. (as Havelek works in metals and wood and should be able to produce the shields) He also arranges transport via a linked portal to a warded circle in the PTC house in Rigus.

The four heroes depart Rigus post-haste, barely taking time to ask the locals about the Cave of Allegria where the first portal is. They are told it was the lair of a powerful witch, who lived atop a nearby mountain some time ago. At the base of Mt. Iaor the group assesses the climb before beginning the ascent to search for the cave. The ascent proves treacherous, if not for her winged boots Alruna would surely have fallen to her death. Within the cave is a large archway, it takes Sioned some hours to work out the proper incantation to activate the portal, after which the group passes through.

They emerge into a mountainous realm, a new prime. As they follow the map to the next gate they pass through several valleys, deeply shadowed and rich in vegetation. In one of the valleys they must fight off a troop of trolls, which while not particularly dangerous is made quite a bit longer by the lack of fire damage in the group. Finally they find the circle of standing stones the map shows, and pass out of the “Mountain World”.

Emerging into a “River World”, also a new prime, Sioned immediately casts Eagle’s Flight. The soaring wings of the summoned giant eagles make easy work of the journey, what would have been many days by boat is behind everyone in the course of several hours. Descending to an island of mounded, black, earth, they begin investigating ruins for the portal. As they work on the obelisk, to open the gate, a drow raiding party assaults them. They slay, or drive off, the drow and vanish from “River World”.

The four emerge into a bright dawn atop a hill near a wide road. The road proceeds for a while and enters and then emerges from the city of Havelek.

The day continues with Mortice deciding to send them through the Tradegate and out of Sigil immediately. With Sioned’s recognition of this same foe a second time Mortice wants word carried across the worlds to the Blind Man, if Master Pizarro can’t figure out what to do about it it’s beyond the PTC’s resources.

The group quickly makes it’s way to the Market Ward and into it’s center, to the Tradegate itself. At the gate await a small company of mercenaries hired by the Temple of the Abyss, hill giant mercs that is. The Crimson Hand send a whole squad to deal with Sioned and her crew. The rockthrowers are nasty, dazing people with bursts of rock-shards, and the Smashers beat he living hell out of Rook. But in the end only one of the giants manages to retreat from the battle.

There’s a short rest, during which they watch the Cagers loot the bodies of the giants, then even the bodies themselves get taken away. Then the group enters the Tradegate, using Pizarro’s permanent key. On their way to Pizarro’s they are assaulted again, now that they’re back in The World they’re open to magics the Cage’s location made moot. A quartet of the mysterious four-armed creatures open a gateway to another world, to a Far Realm. They can be seen briefly in the background as foulspawn pour forth from the breach in The World.

Berserkers charge, hulks move up, and a seer scuttles around in the background. The enemy succeed in mixing it up, overrunning the front line in a brief moment. The seer is dropped by Alruna, with Rook’s help. And in the end a flight of griffon-riders arrives, dropping several bloodied foulspawn in a massed volley.

Captain Timeo Marik makes his customary pass at Sioned, wouldn’t do to not keep in good form you know. And when, as always, rebuffed he escorts them the rest of the way to the House of Pizarro.

Though it’s not mentioned Pizarro will view the entire episode with great interest. He will reward people with any magic items on your wishlists and a purse of 130 platinum. (13,000 gp) He will then detail top men, “Top Men”, to look into things.

Returning to Zadara’s everyone sees as she opens the reverse portal and Estevan appears before her throne and begs of her an audience. After negotiations with Estevan are nearing the end of the beginning Zadara gives Sioned what she’d been looking for. Zadara funded Valdar, at his initiation, for the large buy of cavefire wine he made from the Temple of the Abyss.

Mortice suggests they try to turn Noxana and kidnap Noshteroth. Surely he’ll have the proof they want that Valdar’s behind it all. Using an executioner’s raven as a messenger they send to Noxana to meet them in the Black Sails inn, near the Temple. Noxana meets with them and agrees to turn stag on Noshteroth, the group goes to ambush him outside Lazz’s Vivid School of Unpleasantness, after he attends a concert by Phineas and Morvun.

The fight seems to go quickly, until the vrock appears. But even so it’s pretty much over as Pieter banishes Noshteroth, who is gone for several round before he can return. When he does so all his guards are dead. He surrenders.

Back in the Black Sails the group prepares to torture Noshteroth, but he pretty much rolls the moment they ask him anything. Though he’s remarkably evasive on some issues he give up that the whole deal had been set up and financed by an odd outsider by the name of “Suquiuh”. Suquiuh was very tall, and stick-thin, with blue-skin and four long spidery arms. Sioned immediately recognizes the creature that ran the bandits in the Earth Kingdom as a brother to this Suquiuh. She pulls everyone but Alruna out into the hallway to discuss it, Alruna stays behind to watch the captive.

Alruna and Noshteroth spar quite a bit verbally, they’re quite opposites really, then it gets physical as she knees him. In the fight that ensues he restrains her with a Black Briar Cage he learned from Ravel before leaping out the window. The group returns to Mortice’s, with the news they’ve wrung out of the priest.

On the way back to Mortice’s, from the Court of Woe, the party is ambushed by a half-elf brigand, his tanari buddy, and some dwarven crossbowmen. But after dispatching them they push on through until they can rest in the safety of House Mortice.

The group question Mortice on the local situation, and get Estevan’s wishes for them for the day. They Talk to Zadara about Valdar’s financing. They get nothing solid from A’kin (the “Friendly Fiend”), but along with his gifts of toys he implicates the Temple of the Abyss and Noshteroth. Investigating with Tos reveals that she’d sold quantities of the wine to the Temple of the Abyss. At the Temple of the Abyss they talk to an underpriestess, Noxana.

On the way to Zadara’s, to bring Estevan himself, to get the final piece of information linking Valdar to the whole affair the group is assaulted by a street gang.

The fight with Tarvas demoncaller is a bear. Tarvas continues teleporting around as he works on completing his ritual. Rook is dominated by the needle demon, the remaining immolith does some nasty damage to a bunch of folks. Sioned is knocked out by vrock attacks, and through it all Tarvas just keeps plugging away at his ritual. In the end the fight whimpers out rather than explodes as Tarvas begins to fail to complete his ritual, once his failure is certain he flies into a rage and attacks the party, but by this point they’ve outlasted most of his demons and he’s slain shortly after the last vrock falls.

A short search reveals a letter to Tarvas from “V.”, the letter indicates that Tarvas was in the hire of someone looking to profit from a shortage of cavefire wine. After a short rest Sioned, Njalla, Alruna, and Three head to Estevan for instructions. Rook stays behind, lurking around the wharehoue, in case something happens. Estevan is of the opinion that the letter needs investigation and instructs Sioned to follow up on it, he confirms that Three and Njalla will stick around and help.

Back in the wharehouse Rook takes caution as he hears the large front doors being opened. A string of wagons, guards, two high-ups, labor shows up. There’s some commotion over the dead demons and Tarvas’ body, but after cleaning up the two high-ups (a tiefling male and a half-elf female) get the wagons loaded with cavefire wine and under way. Rooks proceeds to follow them to the Great Market. He follows the female agent for a bit as she sells cavefire wine to various distributors, but is spotted after a while. She confronts him with a squad of Sons of Mercy bashers, and rather than flee or explain Rook tries to fight his way out of it. The beatdown is painful, the blackness of unconsciousness would be a welcome relief for most.

Sioned and crew return to the wharehouse to discover guards of House Mortice present, and the wharehouse open. The guards defer to Sioned’s position and let her investigate, they tell that a caravan to sell cavefire wine discovered dead demons and such on arriving here but has no real information to add to the group’s knowledge of events. Rook isn’t present, the guards didn’t see him. The guard says that Sonnelea, a female half-elf agent of Mortice’s, is currently distributing the cavefire wine in the Great Market.

In the market Sioned fails to locate Sonnelea, who is like Duncam in that she’s so busy she’s always one step ahead of the players. But the group does discover Rook’s altercation with her, and the Sons of Mercy, and that Rook was taken to the city prison in the Son’s company. Rather than wait around people head through to the Lady’s Ward and the Prison of Sigil.

Waking in prison Rook is introduced to Sly Nye, who has been appointed his advocate. Nye sounds Rook out as a possible Anarchist, but susses that he’s not interested in turning stag on the Dusties. As such he says Rook will just have to wait out the night and take his day in court, tomorrow morning. Soon after Nye leaves Sioned, and crew, arrive.

Sioned has bribed the desk sergeant into letting her see Rook, and gets a brief on what he’s seen and done. There’s no good way to, legally, get Rook out of the Prison without a court hearing. So Sioned goes to meet Nye, again. Nye says that he can arrange for an immediate court-hearing, but that there’s only one court open at this time, The Court of Woe. Sioned insists timeliness is essential, and Nye says that he could bribe a few people to get paperwork done faster, and arrange for guards for a transfer to court, etc., etc., etc. . . . Sioned correctly understands him and gives him 200 gold to “spread around”, and promises 100 gold for his own fee should he succeed. Soon Rook is released and the group, with a large Sons of Mercy guard for the prisoner, march out of the Lady’s Ward and back into the Hive.

At Ragpicker’s Square Rook is marched up to a marble facade. The guards pull out an official Writ of Transfer and read Rook’s sentence, “Trial in the Court of Woe, His Honor Judge Gabberslug Presiding.” With the reading of the writ a gate opens up, and the guards shove Rook through, and toss the writ in after him. Nye leads the party through.

Rook is initially taken in hand by a death knight, bailiff of the Court of Woe. The Court itself is hideous and filled with vile creatures, both alive and undead. Everyone is warned to keep the peace lest the Dead Truce (which holds here) be broken. At the end of the court, on a huge throne, is seated a corpulent, pustulent, porcine demon, His Honor Judge Gabberslug. Nye and the knight are clearly old enemies and Nye takes some glee when Gabberslug, on seeing him, demands that he immediately come forward and present his case personally.

The Death Knight makes a good case against Rook, and Nye’s speech seems particularly disjointed and non-sensical. (which for an Anarchist is quite an accomplishment) But Gabberslug clearly favors Nye over his own bailiff and, quite in disregard for the evidence the knight presents, rules in favor of Rook. One badly scrawled scroll later, sealed with a rapidly solidified hawking of Gabberslug’s phlegm, Rook has his official pardon. Pardon in hand he, and the rest of the group, depart the Court of Woe and appear back in Ragpicker Square.

Returning to Estevan’s the party is assaulted by a street gang of dwarves led by a half-elf bandit, and backed by an abyssal eviscerator.

A bit of magic lets Njalla confer with the dead Lubash, he doesn’t wish to return to the world and asks that they set Sarahmay free. The group agrees that setting her free in the Cage is a death sentence, so they head to Mortice’s. Mortice runs one of the PTCs houses, she keeps kip near the Hive. She’s a canny shadar-kai, business wise at least, and has a rep as an “unconventional” woman. (probably bespeaking odd personal habits as the Consortium believes she’s a fine factor) Mortice agrees to get Sarahmay back to Tradegate, and suggests that the group drop off Lubash’s body w. the Dustmen, who will dispose of it appropriately. (she claims his equipment for the Griffon Riders of Tradegate)

At The Mortuary the group hands Lubash’s body off to an emaciated female tiefling by the name of Ei’vene. Ei’vene writes his name into a large book, with some difficulty as her fingers seem capped by needles instead of nails, and summons help to cart the corpse away. Several zombies follow a dustie to the party, pushing a cart. As the zombies load the body onto the cart everyone is shocked to discover that the dustie leading them is Rook. Rook seems quite surprised to encounter Sioned and Alruna again, but seems accepting of fate, his lady (The Raven Queen) works in strange and mysterious ways and he’s learned to accept that. Despite having given up much of his past lives and taken up new ways he agrees to rejoin Sioned again, clearly his lady’s hand is apparent in their meeting.

Re-united, Sioned, Alruna, and Rook lead Three and Njalla back to the Night Market. There they search the House of Song, and find evidence indicating that Tarvas (known as “Demoncaller”) used a back room to conduct rituals related to summoning an odd and new kind of demon. Tarvas also seems to have been keeping a set of magic armor for a bribe or something, Alruna takes it.

After some searching the streets the group manages to finally meet up with Tos, the owner of the House of Song, and a dwarf. Tos is much like Master Trader Duncam, damn busy, and they only catch her at the end of the night as she comes back to the festhall she owns to rest. After some haggling she agrees to be bribed, and gives the five heroes more information about Cavefire Wine. Turns out her brother Thom and she are not just distributors, they’re the suppliers as well. But Thom recently sent her a letter indicating problems with the supply. She can’t drop everything and race to help him, if she even could help him she’s far too busy, but she will sell Sioned a gate key and the location of the gate to Thom’s location.

The gate is in a rickety building opposite a wharehouse Tos owns in the Hive, the key is a 400 gp silver death mask, and it’s consumed as the gate activates. Passing through the gate several people realize they’re back in the Shadowfell. Following that everyone realizes they’re being covered by a hostile force of dwarves, crossbows pointed, axes out. Everyone calms down once Thom confirms to his satisfaction the group’s claim that Tos sent them to help.

Thom explains how they make Cavefire Wine from the luminescent fungi that grow in this cavern complex. However there’s a problem, the current cave to be harvested has been taken over by a foul monster, some sort of pod-jelly creature. Until it’s gone production of the wine is on hold, and Thom has already lost several dwarves trying to battle it. Sioned offers to go take care of the problem, and Thom has a guide lead her to the cavern in question.

In the cavern Three and Rook battle the pod demon while Njalla and Alruna tackle some pod-spawn and try to disarm a magical trap that is causing rock falls throughout the cavern. Sioned has trouble keeping up with the, very mobile, fight. In the end the demon falls as everyone converges on it at once from the various sides of the cave. After defeating it they search the body of a cultist, who summoned it here and set the magical trap in place, and find a map to a wharehouse in the Market Ward, a PTC wharehouse it turns out.

The gate back to Sigil won’t open for the rest of the night, so everyone takes a chance to rest up, get some sleep (and food) and generally ready themselves for their return to the City of Doors. Returning to the Cage the next day the heroes proceed immediately to try to find the wharehouse in question. The Cage is getting pretty bad, food and other critical supplies are now getting in very short supply, and everyone is worried that the Festival of Doors this very night will fail and the Lady will close the Cage. Even getting to the wharehouse involves encountering a few dangerous situations that are quite close to being riots, but not yet quite over the edge.

At the wharehouse in question they find that Tarvas Demoncaller is engaged in a dark ritual. From his notes at the House of Song it’s apparent he’s intending to corrupt all food and drink entering Sigil through it’s portals. If he succeeds chaos is bound to erupt, with devastating consequences to the Consortium (and Estevan). The five heroes try to sneak up on Tarvas, and his demonic guards, but fail. Battle ensues.

Several early hits are landed on Tarvas, but he teleports away before he can be slain and then sucks much of the life out of a needle demon, healing himself. Two immoliths move to tie up the party, while a pair of vrocks fly down to attack the group before returning to the safety of perches high above their heads. Things look grim, even after the group finally kills one of the immoliths things still look grim. With poison clouds filling the air, blood everywhere, no one undamaged, and Tarvas still succeeding at his ritual attempts we stop for the evening.

The, climactic, fight will finish up at the start of next session. Good luck folks, this isn’t looking like an easy fight.

The session opens with a dwarven wizard in the service of Master Pizarro speaking with him. Njalla has spent most of her time since becoming a wizard in Pizarro’s service as a spy-master, not the sort who goes out and does things, more the sort who puts together bits and pieces of information from the field and draws conclusions. Little does she know how that will soon change….

Pizarro informs her of the attack on the Tradegate, and on Tradegate itself. He tells her he’s consulted the Three Grey Ladies, and all three were in agreement that unless the future was changed tonight Sioned was certain to die. (He doesn’t mention that Ogg tried to keep from him that the prophecy could be changed at all, which Magogg passed along as part of her feud with her sister, nor does he mention that Gogg then told him that even if Sioned were saved another life must be paid for the prophecy to be changed.)
Pizarro does however give Njalla a temporary key to the Tradegate, a crystal linked to Sioned to use to find her, and takes her to the stables. There he introduces her to Lubash, a Griffon Rider of Tradegate, who has been on detached service and was working with Sioned. He send them both through the Tradegate to Sigil, where they soar into the positively vile air and head towards Sioned’s location.

Meanwhile Sioned, Alruna, and Three are on the run from Arthani’s forces. They succeed in escaping into the Night Market, but it’s far from safe. As they try to catch their breath they’re run off from an alleyway by a gang of goblins working for Sojah (a gang-lord near The Ditch), Three manages to look dangerous enough to avoid another fight, but they’re on the run again. After a few more harrowing escapes they manage to settle in at Alesha’s Pantry for a quick rest.

Alesha Sheevis doesn’t take too kindly to them however. As soon as she notices them she’s pretty much in their faces for bringing danger to the poor homeless folk she tries to keep fed. Alesha is an aggressive, confident, woman, and she doesn’t take any guff. But she does agree to let them at least rest for a short while. Soon she’s given new cause to be vexed with Sioned as a commotion outside turns out to be related to her, a griffon has landed outside and chaos is erupting on the street. Once that’s settled down Mistress Sheevis agrees to recommend a house they can get a safe room at, if only to get them out of her pantry so she can get back to business.

Following an extended rest in a spare room of a local widow, the group again heads to the Night Market to confront Arthani. This time they’re bringing friends, a wizard, a warrior, and a griffon. The fight is still far from easy, Arthani has hired even more ogres to help her out with bashing, and combined with the two demons she’s working with the fight is very hard. It is particularly hard on Lubash who is pushed into more razorvine, and dies from the multitude of cuts it inflicts on him as he struggles to free himself.

Emerging from the gate to the crypt the four heroes, Sioned, Alruna, Three, and Lubash, find themselves back in Automata. There they debate briefly their next actions, before deciding to go confront Arthani in Fesdin Crale’s kip. His shop is empty however, Sioned briefly considers looting it, before deciding that sending someone from the Consortium is a better idea (as it is a PTC shop). At the back of the shop they find a peculiar alcove, only about a foot deep, behind a door. Guessing, correctly, that it’s a portal Sioned tries the coin to see if it’s the key. It is, and the distinctive appearance of an active portal appears.

Crowding through the four people, and Sarahmay, emerge into a quiet alleyway in Tradegate. Sioned recognizes it as near the burg’s center. On arriving Sarahmay is immediately dropped by hostile magics, which soon thereafter fell Lubash as well, using him connection to her to take them both down. Outside the alley things are suspiciously quiet as well, and some bodies can be seen on the streets.

Emerging from the alley Sioned, Alruna, and Three find the entire city has been attacked and magically knocked unconscious. The inhabitants seem to be alive, but in deep comas. More importantly there is clearly something afoot, they can see bursts of magic from the town center, and Alruna spots several giant figures there.

On entering the town center the trio sees a number of cyclopses guarding several magical rods that have been implanted in the ground around “The” tradegate. (the massive archway that forms the basis of the portal to Sigil that Master Trader Duncam controls with an iron hand) Near the tradegate an eladrin woman incants ritual words, focussing magic from the rods into an attack on the gate. Sioned can see that the wards over the tradegate are weakening, and she suspects that soon the woman will succeed in destroying or badly damaging it.

“Cease this wickedness,” Alruna demands, and charges one of the cyclops. Leaping into the air as she attacks she slays it with a blow striking upwards through it’s chest. Three moves towards the eladrin woman, and Sioned examines the nearest rod to see if she can disable it.

Arthani, the “eladrin” woman continues her ritual even as she reveals her true powers by blasting Three and Sioned with devouring swarms of insects and vermin. Alruna slays a few more cyclops, and Three takes some serious beating from the trio he engages. Sioned, meanwhile, succeeds in disabling one of the rods. When the last cyclops falls Arthani decides she can’t finish her mission and leaps through the arch of the tradegate, vanishing from the town-center after taunting Sioned saying “You’ll never stop the demoncaller in time to save your damnable Consortium”. On one of the cyclops they find a flyer for the “House of Song”, on the back of which is scrawled a name, “Tarvas”. (also on the cylcops are the 3000 gp in pay Arthani gave them)

Sioned then finishes disabling the rest of the rods and begins waking people. She is aided in restoring order when it is discovered that Master Pizarro, and some bashers, were in the town center in a carriage on the way to business. Pizarro takes Sioned’s report, and tells her she must pursue Arthani as best she can. He echoes Estevan’s concerns, doubly so now that a direct attack on Tradegate itself has occurred. He gives Sioned a copper sphere, and tells her to use his personal key to go to Sigil and solve this dilemma, he shall engage his own agents (spies to be sure) to determine if this attack was linked to the recent plague that was visited on the burg.

Using Pizarro’s key Sioned and her companions gate through to the Market Ward in the Cage. There is some chaos as people scatter when the Lady of Pain appears, but She fades away through a nearby building’s wall without doing more than circumstantial damage to those foolish enough to fail to avoid the touch of Her shadow.

Asking around the group finds out several things. First, the Cage is remarkably uptight at the moment, the trade-war has escalated and food is getting scarce, and most importantly everyone is terrified of what The Lady of Pain might do if the Festival of Doors is derailed. Second they learn that the “House of Song” is a festhall in the Hive, near the Night Market. Travel through the Cage is always a challenge, they spend some jink in bribes for directions, threaten a few people to stave off muggings and gang-related violence, and eventually find themselves at the Midnight Gate.

There Sioned speaks w. Gwindor, a half-celestial paladin, and the officer in charge of the Sons of Mercy troops that man Midnight Gate. He tries to convince Sioned not to go through Midnight Gate and into the Hive as it’s very dangerous, he explicitly warns them against it, but when Sioned is adamant he allows that he’ll let them pass. However he urges them not to enter the Hive until dark, the Night Market won’t open until then and every hour in the Hive is a dangerous one. This seems reasonable and the trio agree to return later, with Gwindor’s permission the troops will not hinder their passage.

They spend the time catching a meal, and then going to the Hall of Records (since they’re in the Clerk’s Ward) to investigate the House of Song. They hire a local “barrister” by the name of Sly Nye to help in their research, despite his bizarre speech patterns he clearly knows the Hall well, and is cheaper by far than more respectable guides. (Nye speaks in sentences with . . .. peculiar word order, practically random in fact.)

It turns out the House of Song was recently purchased by one “Tos”, just a few year’s past. Also of interest is that a male half-elf by the name of Arthani was just here last week investigating the same records. Most importantly Sly Nye knows who “Tarvas” is. He tells Sioned that before the factions were exiled by Her Serenity he was an anarchist, and that he knew another anarchist by the name of Tarvas. Tarvas was a spell-slinger who specialized in summoning and controlling demons. He was also one of the more violent and destructive anarchists, Nye claims that he personally never espoused violence and acted through the courts to advance the anarchist cause.

Leaving the Hall of Records well after dark the group hires a young human boy by the name of Gareth as their light-boy. Gareth leads them back to Midnight Gate, and when bribed quite substantially, agrees to lead them through the Hive to the Gatehouse, where they’ll find the Night Market. Along the way they run into some of Sojah’s goblin bashers, but look too tough to extort and so manage to pass through her territory near The Ditch without a fight.

The Night Market is pretty much as wondrous as descriptions said it would be. (and at least as dishonest) The nearby cries of madman in the asylum of the Gatehouse fill the air as everything illicit is bought and sold. After a short time searching the three spot Arthani atop a building, talking with a spell-slinger of the human bent. At the same time she spots them. The spell-slinger vanishes, and the market clears out in a heartbeat as the unerring Cager instincts to avoid a fight about to break out work perfectly.

The fight goes terribly wrong, almost from the start. Arthani is backing a pair of vicious demons, a barlgurra and a beetle-like demon shooting lightning blasts. To make it worse they’re all supported by some hired ogre muscle. Three is hit by several vicious attacks from the barlgurra, and Arthani, and the runecarved demon, AND is knocked several times into patches of razorvine. After being knocked out, healed, knocked out again, and healed again, everyone figures the fight is a lost cause. Rather than die in the streets of Sigil Sioned calls for a retreat.

The three retreat in good order. Behind them Arthani’s taunts fill the air, “Run fools. RUN! You’ll never be my match, and my master’s plots approach completion! Your precious Consortium and the Cage itself are doomed!”

So the night ends with the three, badly beaten, racing into the darkness of the Hive seeking shelter … . any shelter, anything safe enough to at least catch a short rest in……

The story opens with Three, a warforged slain in psionic experiments in Cyre, waking in Mechanus. He’s tended by modrons, who discard him as “broken and incompatible with universal protocols”, the result of House Cannith’s magics that create warforged. He is then shipped to Automata to be sold as scrap, to a tiefling woman. The woman, Nera, is an agent of Estevan’s, and offers him his freedom as she claims her master isn’t interested in slaves. But if Three is interested he would like to hire him, as a free “man.” Three makes several quite bigoted remarks about meat-bags, but agrees in the end to at least go hear Estevan’s offer out.

In Tradegate Lubash, a half-orc griffon-rider from House Vadalis, is speaking w. Master Trader Duncam. Lubash has been a short time in service with the Griffon Riders of Tradegate, and Captain Marik thinks he’s better suited to “independent service” than the more typical formation work the riders do. (Lubash defected to Tradegate to pair w. Sarahmay after House Vadalis continually refused his desire to be paired with a griffon.) Duncam asks Lubash if that’s what he would like, Lubash pretty much shrugs and says “whatever” as long as he and Sarahmay can stay together. Duncam then says he’ll send him to Automata, there to meet with Master Estevan, who will have work for him.

Arriving in Automata Lubash goes to the inn he was directed to, the Inn of the White Harp, and sits down for a bite to eat while he waits. Nera, followed by Three, walks in, brushes road-dust off her leathers, and asks if he’s the owner of the griffon outside. She then makes both of them an offer, in return for a bag of 10 platinum they’re to go to the room at the end of the upstairs hallway and listen to her Master’s offer.

In the room Estevan, in very fine silks and sipping tea from fine china, awaits them, along with Sioned and Alruna. He explains how he fears there is a conspiracy against himself, and the PTC. He believes it focuses on the upcoming Festival of Doors in Sigil, and in particular on the cave-fire wine supplies. He wants Sioned, his agent, to investigate, and wishes to hire Lubash and Three to act as muscle. “A few good minders at an agents back always make things go more smoothly,” he declares. If Lubash and Three are willing they can share in his reward, an astral diamond, with Sioned and Alruna. Everyone agrees that this seems like a fair deal, and some questions are asked of, and mostly answered by, Estevan. He then urges them to get to Sigil as soon as possible, to begin the investigation.

At Estevan’s direction the quartet go to Crale’s Arcane Antiquities, a PTC owned shop that can sell them a gate key to The Cage. There they meet Fesdin Crale, an old human spell-slinger who runs the shop. Crale and Sioned bargain a bit over price, mostly for fun on both of their parts, and settle on a favorable price for the gate-key. He hands them a small stone domino, and tells them it opens a passage in a doorway in a quiet alleyway.

The four proceed to the gate, and open it with Crale’s key. Passing through they emerge into absolute, quiet, blackness. The air is musty and stale. When they create some light they see they’ve stepped out of a dry fountain and are in a crypt of some sort, behind them the gate vanishes. Moments later they are attacked . . . .

A ghost spider, so called for it’s phasing not because it’s a ghost, comes through a wall to attack. At the end of the crypt coffins are tossed aside as wights advance, and Alruna just barely manages to spot another wight hiding in the shadows as it scuttles to the side. The fight is long, the ghost spider skirmishes with Sarahmay and Lubash while Three tangles up the wights advancing from the back. Alruna takes on the sneaky one in a side passage. In the end the ghost spider is driven off, and the wights destroyed. But the fight is a long slog, and costs the party many of their spells and prayers to win.

Searching the crypt after the fight reveals two things of note. First, and simplest, a suit of magic chainmail is found in one of the coffins. Sioned claims it. More importantly a human body is found in the rear of the crypt, it is dessicated and clearly has been slain by the wights, perhaps a day or so earlier. It is clearly Fesdin Crale’s body.

On Crale’s body two things are found that are of import. Firstly a journal, in which he details how he’s discovered that a shape-shifter by the name of Arthani is acting against the PTC. His last entry says that he must warn Estevan and the Master Traders immediately of the danger to the Consortium. The second thing found is a gold coin with the symbol of the PTC on the front, and engraved on the back “Crale’s Arcane Antiquities.”

The group takes a rest while they try to figure a way out of the crypt. After an hour or so the magic of the gate recharges and they succeed in re-opening it.

In which our heroes ascend to Heaven and muster the Armies of Hestavar to save the settlers of the Berare river valley…..

The night opens with five heroes desperately fighting a hunting party of thri kreen, who seem intent on adding “humanoid” to the cook pots tonight. Alruna fight alone at the front of the battle-lines, desperately fending off a horde of bounders who swarm over her. While she does that Sioned and Rook tangle with a pair of vicious marauders, while Pieter banishes the mantis warrior who leads the hunt. Soon enough the warrior returns though, and Alruna’s situation starts to look desperate. Alruna blows a few more bounders away, constantly shifting position in an attempt to slow down the flanking maneuvers the bounders use, Pieter fires off his best healing and summons his healing spirit.

In the end, with one marauder down, the mantis warrior calls off the hunt. Three bounders escape. The mantis warrior leaps over a ruined wall, but Alruna charges around a corner and cuts him down in a heroic flurry of blows. The last thri kreen, the marauder, nearly gets away but is cut down as he flees.

The sounds of more thri kreen mustering drives the party into opening the gate before they’ve even taken a short rest. Rook touches the Pyramid of the Dead Sea, a tall tri-faced obelisk, and it steals from him the memory of him dying from drowning in the seas off the shores of the Caliph Al Rashiq’s lands. Everyone piles through in short order….

.... only to discover a horde of zombies moving to attack them when they exit the Pyramid of the Sea in the Sargasso Graveyard. Aeran quickly leads everyone out, dodging around buildings and using close “alleyways” between mausoleums to avoid sight of most of the horde. But without Sioned and Rook running interference, drawing zombies away from the path of the group, everyone would surely have been swarmed. Alruna guides the way, having spotted signs of life off in the distance.

Eventually the group escapes the zombie horde and takes a quick breather before continuing onwards.

At a large mausoleum everyone sees the Dustmen going about their business. They speak w. Mr’vin, a remarkably depressing watchman who seems to think there’s no real point to much of anything, he does take them into the mausoleum before handing them over to a senior “dustie.” Ei Vene is an older tiefling woman, she’s emaciated to the point of appearing skeletal. She agrees to pass them through the gate to Sigil, collects the toll of a platinum a head, and instructs them on the principles of Dustman philosophy. The key to the gate is simply to think of the death you wish to have, but the gate itself is somewhat intelligent (and a great believer in Dustman philosophies) and will punish anyone who does not understand them, though belief is not necessary.

No one is injured as Ei Vene’s explanations are very good, and everyone emerges safely in the Cage. Jerek’s is a funeral parlor in a bad part of town, but seems to be run well. Jerek, a tall and thin human man, rushes them out saying “You need to leave, Factol Skall is soon to be arriving.” He apologizes at the brusqeness, but nonetheless deposits the group on the street.

As business is finished up the group notices a group of “trouble” walking down the street towards them, looks like a liche followed by a pack of followers. Given how little reaction they draw it’s even more shocking when screams from Sigilians erupt from the other end of the street. As the Lady of Pain emerges from an alley, flanked by a posse of dabus, her shadow slices outwards mercilessly cutting at least one innocent.

The dabus speaks, warning Skall to surrender peacefully and depart the Cage lest he meet the same fate as the other reluctant factols. Everyone except Sioned knows it’s time to get out of Dodge as Skall replies that he’s grown in power and is not about to back down to the Lady of Pain. (Sioned is too busy feeling the laser-like focus of The Lady’s gaze on her, for though she says nothing it’s clear the Lady of Pain is intensely interested in Sioned.)

As explosions and violence erupts the group dashes down the street to escape the destruction. Behind them there are the sounds of a fierce battle, featuring deadly-powerful magicks, for all of about 7 or 8 seconds. Then there is a deadly, and ominous, silence. No one anywhere will ever see or hear from Skall again.

Tiki, and Princess Lysistrata, take their leave of the group. Tiki takes the group to the House of Valdar, the PTC House in Sigil, and arranges to pick up payment later before departing with Lysistrata. People comment on what a dog Tiki is as it’s apparent he’s managed to seduce the princess as they’re clearly looking to rent some rooms for a little fun now that they’re safe.

In the PTC’s house they find chaos. Valdar has apparently fled the House now that Sigil has become so dangerous. In his place he’s left Pietra, an overworked and slightly desperate half-elf. Pietra expresses some dissatisfaction with her factor to Sioned, and says that Valdar would surely not help one of Estevan’s agents even if he should. But since she’s really quite upset with Valdar, and since Sioned’s mission is to the advantage of the PTC, she writes Sioned a letter of credit and sends her off to the Forge.

Pietra warns Sioned that the Godsmen were recently decapitated by Duke Rowan Darkwood’s “Takers” who slew the Godsmen’s factol. (their leader) That war is over as “The Lady slew or banished the lot of the Takers right quick afterwards”. However the upshot is that Silvari is the new high-up-man in The Forge, and he’s quite hostile towards Valdar (and thus the PTC). Pietra asks Sioned to try to keep the price low for using his gate to Hestavar, and to keep an eye out for the key if they can discover it, but says she expects Silvari’s anger to keep the price high.

As they depart the House of Valdar Alruna suffers a vision of men battling desperately at a makeshift wall. Some call out to Alruna, praying to her for aid. Robb puts a stop to it, saying they would be better to pray to Erathis . . . a real god. The vision passes as Alruna chooses not to go to help the battle.

The group successfully navigates the Lower Ward and reaches the Forge. Though the journey is not without some trouble as they are ambushed by a gang looking for a tithe for passing through their territory, Rook threatens the lot of them and they retreat without a fight or payment.

At the Forge Sioned and everyone cool their heels for a while before Silvari comes out to see them. He’s an immense, grotesquely, obese man. (tiefling) He clearly knows Pizarro is the PTC’s spymaster and as much as calls Sioned a spy when she says she works for him, Sioned is bluffing at the time to conceal her relationship with Estevan. The two bargain, in a process that both clearly enjoy, and settle on a fair price of 12,000 gold to use the gate. Silvari suggests that Sioned betray the PTC by letting him pad another 10,000 gold onto the bill, for which he’ll give her 10,000 gold. (his goal is to make Valdar poorer) Sioned cannily agrees, takes the money, signs the bill, and resolves to return the 10,000 gold to the House of Valdar when they return. She knows no agent who would betray the Consortium in such a manner, but she’s met several who would let their outside contact think they had done so in order to close a deal on more friendly terms.

The passage to Hestavar itself is uneventful. Everyone emerges into bright light on one of Hestavar’s islands.

Alruna brings the group straight to the War Academy where she sees the cadets arming for battle and the officers racing around mustering the armies of angels. The one angel she speaks to directs her to Erathis’s palace, there to speak to “the Fallen one, Machariel”. (some explanation of angelic nature to the non-religious members of the group follows as Alruna explains how an angel should be just a tool, not a person)

At the palace the group is brought by Machariel into the presence of the three Gods of Hestavar; Erathis, Pelor, and Ioun. Also present is the exarch of the Raven Queen known as Akasha. Together they reveal that Alruna has been given the power she has in order to lead the hosts of Hestavar into battle on the world of Carta. Alruna is shown the Wardrobe Gates, and told that when she is next called she must take one of them with her. Ioun grants Sioned a boon, a boon of knowledge, though it’s fuzzy at the moment she promises Sioned that when the time is right what she needs to know will become clear.

Everyone then rests for a time.

An hour or so later everyone finds themselves on a great mustering field. Machariel is there, along with Akasha and a host of angelic and exalted warriors. Both wardrobe gates are there as well. As Alruna steps onto the field a vision overwhelms her.

Alruna vision shows Torgar and Yuggoth battling, they are both huge figures (towering over the hills) and are locked in mortal combat. Nearby Grithka lies wounded, her brother standing over her blazes fire forth in a wave that washes over hordes of creatures charging them. Goliaths from Tablarax and settlers die trying to hold back a horde of minotaurs charging down on the escaping women and children fleeing south along the river. Alruna’s vision finally draws down to an old, gray-haired, woman. Tara (“the Terror”) is in the back of a bouncing wagon tending to Jeb, who lies unconscious in the wagon’s bed alongside other casualties of the battle. She prays to Alruna, “I’ve never had truck with gods, but if you have the power to save us as you saved your companions you must come now. For if you will not come we are surely doomed. Save us Alruna!”

Answering the call Alruna’s body collapses on the mustering field in Hestavar. Her spirit flies down from the heavens towards the world, but not so quickly that she fails to graps the wardrobe as she passes by it.

There is a blaze of light as Alruna appears, floating, above the wagon. As she descends there is a tremendous explosion as the Wardrobe Gate shatters. The explosion is deadly, and it injures several settlers who were too close to it. Afterwards a black hole in reality is left, a cracked in the worlds, a gate created by the destruction of something as powerful as the Wardrobe Gate.

Machariel charges through the rift in time and space. Following him the angelic hosts stream forth. With a lending of divine power to Grithka Machariel heals her, though she is still wounded. Together with the Fire Lord the three assault Torgar, even as he tears the last essence of Yuggoth to shreds.

Leading the battle lines Alruna, and the rest of the group, fight through waves of minotaurs. Alongside them are settlers, goliaths from Tablarax, orcs from the nearby hills, and fiery demons summoned from the depths of Carta. The combined army is irresistable, and soon the minotaurs are fleeing back towards their camp, pursued and slaughtered by the army.

When the battle is done it is discovered that Boss Simkins and about a hundred of the settlers and orcs who held the pass (at what is now being called Simpkin’s Wall) have survived by retreating into a cave in the defile. Simkins is injured, as is everyone still alive, but is in fighting form. Robb is much worse, his penchant for leading from the front combined with his willingness to die for Alisse and his future children have again resulted in him taking critical wounds, he will survive but will not even awake from his coma for some days.

The gleanings from the barbarian camp results in the settlers giving Sioned 100,000 gold in loot in thanks for her services. Machariel learns to channel the power of Carta (the world) to create souls, but warns Erathis not to come here for the link is permanent and now that it is made he can never leave the lands of the Berare river valley again, which is not what Erathis wants for herself at all.

Spiritually we can count Robb as a true convert to Erathis, Boss Simpkins converts (though his heart isn’t in it he is a man of his word). Machariel is pretty much now a local god in the valley. And it seems there’s a new religion in town, so to speak, though no one will admit it there is an underground worship of Alruna that is starting up as well. (let’s hope Alruna never hears of it)

The next day everyone meets in Sigil, at the Golden Apple. Estevan takes some of the gold from Sioned to fund operations in the Cage, the rest he uses to buy people magic items.

In which our heroes descend through the Abyss itself into the Lands of Death on their journey back to the center of the Worlds…..

Having defeated the neogi spawn and their guardians, and their prey, the party moves downwards towards the bole of Yggdrasil. Before they can reach the next fork in the branch they are stopped as they descend towards a “wooded” (think bromeliads, moss, lianas, and ferns) “plain” (think “a wide and flat-topped section of the branch”).

The group spends some tense moments negotiating with a patrol of ratatosk which are holding this position against the neogi who live further out the branch. Kik’churakk, the patrol leader, eventually agrees they aren’t spies for the neogi and negotiates with them. He will agree to let them past his position on two conditions, first they must wait until his relief patrol arrives and secondly Pieter must aid his tribe with some healing. (as Pieter had offered)

Approaching the C’churakk tribe’s main camp the group splits up to deal more quickly with things. Sioned and Aeran ask around, looking for a route to Hestavar (or back to known lands). Pieter and Alruna go to help the healer M’rristakka, who tests their skills. Rook tries to stay out of trouble…..

Aided by Alruna Pieter succeeds in saving a badly injured hunter that M’rristakka had been sure would lose his leg, which went gangrenous after a fall. Alruna befriends the old healer, and gets her to reveal that while she knows the tree itself well she rarely leaves it’s domain and so has little to offer a planeswalker, the grey-haired ratatosk says she expects most of the tribe will be the same for the ratatosk are a people more “of” the tree than just living on it.

Rook sits himself down, trying to stay out of trouble, but finds that the young ratatosk kits find him irresistible prey for pranks and generally childish antics. He responds, to everyone else’s sighs of relief, with stories of the things he has fought and defeated. Rook embellishes the stories, much to the kit’s delight, but their elders are not so impressed with Rook’s (to their eyes) false bragging.

Sioned and Aeran are ushered into a “hut” in which three aged ratatosk sit, they are passing a pipe around while discussing tribal business. The two outsiders speak to the elders, relaying their needs and asking if the tribe can help them get to Hestavar. The elders agree that the group’s help, especially in light of Pieter’s efforts, merit some reward. But they regret that the C’churakk tribe rarely leaves the World’s Tree and so can not point them towards Hestavar.

They do offer that there is a member of the tribe, recently returned for a short time, who might be able to help. They say he’s a plane’s-walker like themselves, but warn Sioned that he’s crazy. Aeran says that dealing with crazy people is pretty normal for them, thinking of Crazy Horse. He and Sioned gather the rest of the group and leave the main camp for an outlying temporary camp where the “crazy” ratatosk is staying.

The “crazy” ratatosk proves to be a canny rogue by the name of Tiki. Tiki wears silks and velvets, his hose and beplumed hat are impeccable, and the cut of his half-cape is exactly above where the jeweled handle of his rapier hangs at his waist, only the lack of shoes says anything other than “rich, influential, Renaissance Man”. Tiki is a hard bargainer, nearly as hard a bargainer as he is a sharp dresser. He’s also a bit hard to understand initially for his speech is filled to the brim with the plane-walking slang that dominates conversation in The Cage. (the city of Sigil) But he agrees to lead the party back to Sigil for the price of 5,000 gold and a reference to the PTC for future business opportunities. He also demands, and gets, the promise that he won’t have to raise a finger in his own defence. (Tiki has a hot date planned in The Cage and doesn’t want to rumple his silk cape or dirty his clothes)

After agreeing to terms Tiki puts on a seriously fierce pair of boots and leads the party off. They pass from the World’s Tree to the Abyssal plane of Twelve Trees. While there they rescue Lysistrata (a princess from “Dirt”) from gnolls who were planning to sacrifice her. Another branch of Yggdrasil then leads them into the Shadowfell.

In the Shadowfell they approach a ruined city. Dodging hordes of zombies they reach the city’s center where they find a decrepit, but still standing, archway. Tiki offers dead-flesh (some dried meat) to the Raven Queen, which is the key to activate the portal. Passing through the arch the group emerges into a blazingly hot world.

Beneath a dim, huge, red sun, (let’s agree to call it a “Dark Sun”, shall we) the party bakes. Around them are ruins of an ancient civilization. In the distance they can see a dirty-brown “ocean” of silt. Around it lies a hostile badlands with little beyond sand, rocks, and the occasional patch of tumble-weed. Tiki says, “Well, drink up and then we’d best move out quickly, this isn’t a very friendly place.”

Passing as fast as they can, but still suffering from exposure to the brutal heat, after a few hours travel the party of planar travelers finally approach the pyramidal obelisk Tiki calls the “Pyramid of the Lost Sea”, and which he claims is the portal out of here. As they draw near they see insectile forms around the pyramid. Soon combat ensues as the hunting party of Thri Kreen are not about to let several day’s meat escape them if they can help it.

The game pauses as a Mantis Warrior harrasses Pieter and Sioned while Alruna and Rook get swarmed by hunters and Aeran skirmishes around everyone dodging hunters, the Warrior, and a pair of marauders.

Having consulted ancient oracles and having been refreshed the heroes return to known worlds.

Okay, a bit more detail.

Constrained by Pieter’s Knights of Unyielding Valor the kraken mauls Aeran and Alruna a bit more. Aeran escapes it’s grasp, but Alruna is caught and flung into her allies a few times. Finally the kraken, badly wounded, retreats from it’s hunt and withdraws into the depths of the black lake.

The group wades out to the gate they believe holds the portal. The water is foul, and chest-high near the gate. Sioned tells everyone to try to think thoughts of death and despair, the key to open the portal, and helps folks along with some ancient tales of woe and horror. The portal opens. A vast current pulls everything within ten or fifteen feet of the gate through it as water rushes through the portal. After only a second or so the portal snaps shut behind a dazed and disoriented party and the mass of choking fish and lake-creatures that were pulled through the gate along with the lake’s waters.

It is soon apparent to experienced planar travelers that the world they have come to is neither the Shadowfell nor the Outlands. A blue sky, with wispy clouds, above and a pleasant, but hot, temperature color impressions of “courtyard as garden” with citrus trees and pleasant-smelling herbs. Before anyone assesses more than that a well-dressed servant standing near a door addresses them.

Paulo inquires first if they are friends of the Duke Stormcrow Abruzzi, then if they are his enemies, then lastly if he may offer them the Duke’s hospitality. It becomes clear that the Duke pays some attention to what comes out of his gate and that accepting his hospitality, at least until they meet him themselves, is not an optional thing. Sioned accepts his offer of hospitality and the group is shown to rooms where they may prepare themselves before meeting the Duke. Baths are taken, gear is cleaned, and in a bit under an hour Paulo returns to tell them that the Duke has cleared his schedule and would be happy to see them at their earliest convenience. Everyone interprets that correctly and immediately follow Paulo to a library.

The Duke (“The Duke, the Duke will die before these eyes and he’ll know, he’ll know, that it is I, Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, who encompasses his doom!”, sorry, love that quote) is a tall, and somewhat guant, man. He has grey hair and the signs of age, but appears to still remain vital and full of energy. He is a tiefling. When the party enters the library a number of courtiers will depart to let Duke Stormcrow speak with his “guests”.

The conversation goes well, for Sioned and her companions mean no ill to the duchy and are candid and truthful. The Duke does get Sioned to examine a long fore-arm bone that proves to be the “gift” Ogg gave her that was wrapped in silk. The bone is powerfully magical, it’s easily detected by anyone with good arcane senses at the range of an entire city, however the silk seems to be shielding it’s power and keeping it secret. What little can be told of the bone is that it is very old, it’s powerful magic seems to be trying to reconnect it to the other pieces of whatever it once was, and that it’s not a piece of anything anyone has ever heard of.

Further questioning reveals that the Duke visited the Oracles long ago. At their request he moved the gate from the Shadowfell to his lands and waited, they told him that in the future travellers would come forth from it, and that he must guide them to the Grove of the Eldest. For twenty years nothing had come through the gate, then Sioned et al arrived. Stormcrow connects the bone to his prophecy and believes that Sioned is surely being used as an agent by the oracles, and that she should probably be aided as best he can since he thinks well of them.

At the Duke’s invitation the party spends the night, taking rest in the castle. His hospitality is impeccable, the company educated, the city nearby (Calembel) easily accessible and welcoming, his wine and brandy cellar is possibly the best Rook has encountered, and when morning comes everyone is refreshed.

Riding out from Calembel on phantom steeds, and aided by a traveler’s chant, the party makes excellent time as they race north along the coast. Asking at villages they guide themselves towards the Grove of the Eldest, which the villagers are happy to direct them to though they won’t speak of what goes on there. Cresting a ridge running down from the mountain Ioa they see a forested valley that matches the description of the grove, in a clearing near a stream they can see smoke rising up though the distance is too far to see more.

Working their way through the forest the party breaks into the clearing near the stream. There they see an older woman tending some fish she’s roasting over a low fire. She seems well enough, and readies herself to flee until assured the group means her no harm. She then offers to split the fish with them for lunch if they will share their food with her, everyone agrees and people sit down to a simple meal. Elegeia is not terribly forthcoming as a conversationalist, but it’s apparent she’s a very good listener as she gets much more information out of the party than they give her. In particular she won’t tell them who “The Eldest” is, though after lunch is finished she tells everyone that she will introduce them to “The Eldest” if that’s their desire.

Following Elegeia into the forest the group travels for a bit. Elegeia is quiet by nature and doesn’t speak much on the trip. Pieter looks around the forest for anything out of place but it seems natural enough to him. Suddenly Elegeia stops and turns and asks the party what they see. Looking around more closely the group slowly realizes that the tree behind her is a branch of Yggdrasil, the World’s Tree. Commending them on their observation, and having finished her introduction of the group to the tree, Elegeia departs as quietly as she led them to “The Eldest.”

It takes some time before the group manages to climb up into the branches of the tree, having determined nothing unusual was to be found at ground level. Swinging around the bole of the tree (maybe 10’ in diameter) Aeran finds a hole leading into Yggdrasil, arcane energy seems to indicate that the tunnel inside the hole is a planar passageway. Some people slam against branches as they swing over to the hole, but no one falls the forty or so feet to the ground below. The tunnel itself proves a tougher job, it’s been chewed out of the tree by something (or things) and is winding and steep, and not very big, it’s seriously claustrophobic. It’s also slick enough that Alruna fails to hold her grip and falls down the tunnel into Rook, who falls into Pieter, the three are only back-stopped at the last moment as Sioned braces herself and stops the disaster about to unfold. With more caution the group finishes the climb.

They emerge onto a large branch of Yggdrasil, perhaps 20’ wide at it’s narrows. Below they can see a fork and they head towards it, seeking the trunk.

Before they get to the fork they are assaulted by a pair of neogi slavers, each caring for a swarm of neogi spawn that are pursuing (and consuming) a writhing mass of rot grubs. The neogi slavers spread out to sides, climbing along the sides of the great branch with their spider-legs gripping the tree easily. The rot-grubs, pursued by the neogi spawn, slam into the party’s front-line. Rook petrifies a mass of the swarms, and Sioned uses a Wail of Anguish to punish them as well. However the group is held back by the slavers, for each neogi repeatedly blasts and fries their minds with psychic attacks, shackling their minds with commands they must resist. (and dazing them) The fight is nasty, and closely fought, for a very long time. But once the swarms start to fall it’s but second before the entire enemy forces are in collapse. One of the slavers escapes by climbing to the underside of the branch and moving away, there are no other survivors.

The group takes a short rest and proceeds along the branch of Yggdrasil.

Our heroes appear outside a gatehouse of Astrazalian, traveling via a linked portal. Alas it appears to be winter, and the Fomori-led hordes are actually assaulting the city-walls when the heroes arrive.

Atop a wall a great Fomori leader, the King of Baradh Durr, battles under a banner sporting a Black Cauldron. At the gatehouse a unit of hobgoblins attempt to storm the gatehouse with ladders. Atop the gatehouse Shandria, the eladrin leader of the city, hews down a cyclopean opponent and casting his head down to the hobgoblins bellows, “Let loose the cavalry!” The gates begin to open as hobgoblins begins scrambling back, their leader tries to hold them to their assault, but fails. As the broken unit streams away from the gate, and towards our heroes, Shandria looks down and calls out, “If you would serve Astrazalian this day, HOLD THOSE GOBLINS FOR THE CHARGE!” in a tremendously commanding voice.

Sioned advances into the teeth of the hobgoblin unit, Pieter raises a wall along one flank, while Alruna holds in the center. Rook has already raised the fiery forces of Ugar in the center. As hobgoblins begin to engage the hobgoblin Hand of Bane is banished by Pieter’s prayers. Without his leadership the gobbo horde swarms around, and while they damage several people they do not escape when the eladrin cavalry comes charging out from the gates of Astrazalian. Aeran probably has the worst time of anyone as he discovers that an open battlefield is not the most friendly environment for an assassin.

The party is given into the command of an Astrazalian captain, Gil Gallorian by name, who debriefs them. On hearing their quest he turns them over to Shandria for a decision. Shandria says that she can’t afford to spend the resources needed to send them to The World from Astrazalian, but that if they’ll help her she can still help them escape the Feywild. She offers that if they take a letter to a spy of hers outside the city and return word via a sending ritual of whether or not the spy’s news is believable she’ll have the spy give them the location of a fey portal, she knows the portal goes to either the Sargasso Graveyard or to the echo of the original graveyard in the Shadowfell. Shandria hopes the spy can bring some enemies of the Black Cauldron to drive away the besieging army, buying Astrazalian some time to prepare for the next assault. When the party accepts she commends them on their courage and has wizards prepare for their journey with ritual aids.

The five heroes ride out on phantom steeds, passing over the bay in an attempt to outflank the camp of the Black Cauldron. They are fiercely pursued by the fomori warriors, but escape them as they pass into the Iron Hills. Some tough navigation is needed to pass through the Iron Hills, and it is only by Aeran’s skill that they manage to evade a hunting party of hill giants. But soon they come to a thick fen, within which they believe lies the Island of the Oracles. (where they are to meet the spy, the youngest of three sisters) The fen turns into a deep swamp, and navigation is difficult even for those atop steeds that can ride over water, which is incredibly useful here. But in the end they find the lake with the island in it’s center, but cannot approach due to a magical circle that repels them. With effort, and help, Rook and Sioned temporarily drop the circle just long enough to ride past it.

The Isle of the Oracles proves to be a low, bramble-choked, patch of semi-dry land. As they approach the center of the Isle it rises slightly, and eventually they discover a low hut in a clearing, smoke rises from a rough chimney. As they approach a hideous ancient crone comes out and demands to know who they are, she is visibly blind, having only black and empty sockets in their place. When hearing Sioned’s name she cackles and calls out to her sisters to bring “the eye”. A second hag comes out of the hut, she give the first an eye she plucks out of her own skull and returns inside. Placing the eye in head Ogg, ogles the group.

Over time the party meets Ogg, and her sisters Gogg, and Magogg. The three ancient crones claim to be oracles, and share a single “all seeing eye” between themselves, trading it off for incomprehensible reasons. The spy turns out to be Gogg, the middle sister, and Magogg, the youngest is clearly friendly towards the eladrin. Ogg, the eldest, is more clearly a friend of the fomori. The three argue fiercely over what to do, what to tell the group in particular since they know word will get back to Shandria. In the end Magogg decides it by telling Sioned she believes that the King of Mag Tureadh is not insane, but is instead the “Wise King from Below” spoken of in prophecy. Gogg agrees to pass on Shandria’s letter, and takes Shandria’s payment for her service. Ogg is tremendously unhappy and as the party leaves declares, “So be it then, if Shandria will gain in this let her lose in another realm. Take this gift girlie, and don’t open it until you’ve left the Isle. Shandria shan’t be allowed to win in all things,” and she hands Sioned a long, thin, object wrapped in red silk. The other sisters violently object and the party departs as they begin fighting amongst themselves.

At the edge of the lake, as they are leaving the Isle of the Oracles, they find the graves wherein their portal lies. The three grey ladies had given them the portal key, thoughts only of death and despair. As they approach they can see that the muddy waters of the lake have risen to cover many of the gravestones, and the portal itself is now at least thirty feet off-shore. People prepare to wade out to it, but notice a huge bulge of water approaching the island, as if of a massive submerged creature moving at high speed. As they watch in horror a mass of huge tentacles bursts forth from the water’s surface, and is soon followed by the hideous bulk of a kraken’s body. The kraken eyes the group, and moves to attack. Aeran engages it more closely as the majority of the group tries to stay away from the beast’s tentacles. However it spits poison and blinds a few people with that attack. As the battle rages Pieter summons four celestial warriors to help pin the monster in place.

The session opens with Sioned waiting, cooling her heels, outside the library in House Duncam. Within are Duncam, Pizarro, Melina, and Estevan. When brought in she sees Estevan is using his true form. Estevan tells her the time has come for him to retake his House in Sigil, he says the great war between the factions is nearly spent and when it finishes he can return. He will cast out the imposter who has taken his place and seize what is rightfully his, all to the profit of the Consortium of course since he’s a far better factor than the current occupant. Estevan seems to possess some inside information as he says that he will begin in three days, and that Sioned is to meet him at The Golden Apple in the Cage in three days. Before she does she needs to deliver some cargo for him, oh, and she needs to acquire some gold for Estevan prior to then as well. Estevan is vague on the details of who/why/where regarding the cargo, and especially vague on how Sioned is to get to the cargo, but he’s perfectly clear on the gold. Sioned is to bring him 100,000 gold pieces in three days.

Back at the ranch grandma is beating off the injuns . . ... okay, not so much. In fact there is a large gathering at the Simkins’ Ranch. Everyone rides out to gather the locals, at the end of the day there are near 100 men (and a few women as well) gathered in the farmyard to discuss the coming of Torgar. Consensus is that the 500 or so men the settlers can muster will not cut it in a fight against the minotaurs, help will be needed. It’s agreed to send messengers to Tablarax to ask aid of the city. But some dispute over whether to send Pieter and his “boys” to Erathis for help or whether to send Boss Simkins and Robb (who are both willing to pledge Erathis their souls if that’s the price of saving the people of the Berare river valley) arises.

As the congress of ranchers and farmers debates Alruna is distracted by a voice only she can hear, a voice from her past, Sioned’s voice. Sioned is in danger and calls to her saying “If you can get the feather of the Raven Queen come and help me.” Alruna can sense there’s danger from Sioned’s voice, and can feel there are drawn weapons involved. Alruna goes to ask Rook about the feather. As she does she again hears a cry for help, followed by a sharp pain as if of a cut to someone’s wrist in a sword-fight. Rook can not help her, though he’s fascinated to hear of the Raven Queen’s interest in her and her vision of Akasha (the exarch of the Raven Queen). Alruna then hears Sioned cry out for help again, and feels a sharp pain in her wrist as if from a viciously applied disarming move, she can sense a large figure attacking Sioned. In increasing distress Alruna presses Rook for any information about the feather that he knows, in a corner Aeran sees what is going on and sneaks nearer to Alruna and Rook to watch. Alruna falls to her knees and cries out for the Feather of the Raven Queen as she is overwhelmed by a sharp pain in the side of her chest and a clear vision of a large Oni standing over Sioned’s fallen form piercing the side of her chest with a great sword, worse yet, she recognizes the Oni as Davakara, the Oni hired by Colonel Vailor to try to assassinate them. Taking compassion on her plight, and obvious distress, Aeran pulls the feather out and hands it to Alruna.

Alruna collapses to the ground unconscious, and the feather vanishes.

The discussion of what to do breaks down as the congress of ranchers dissolves into chaotic talk about Alruna, and what her collapse means. (if anything) While things break down Tara rushes into the house to get medical supplies, but on her return finds there is nothing wrong with Alruna that she can determine. A few seconds later something momentous occurs. . . .

About a day’s walk out of Tradegate, in the forest nearby, Sioned and Estevan are setting things up. Along with them is one of Estevan’s cousins, an assassin by trade, an Oni named Davakara. Estevan explains that he’s not sure exactly how it works, but that it was prophesied by one of his clients (referred to as “I”) that if Sioned cried out for Alruna’s aid after three summons, when things seemed most bleak, Alruna would appear and that Sioned would depart The World with her. Estevan explains that this is how she is to get to her “cargo”, he’ll now answer that he believes the cargo is some people, but that he’s still not sure exactly who, nor where they are to go. Sioned and Davakara agree to stage a “duel”. Sioned calls, with no effect, for Alruna’s help and the two begin to fight. Davakara is (for now) the more skilled swordsman and as he slices Sioned’s fore-arm she again calls to Alruna. Pressing her backwards he pins her against a large rock and disarms her with a skilled trick, forcing her to cry out to Alruna for a third time. For the final call to Alruna he twists his sword so that his strike to Sioned’s chest is merely a flesh-wound instead of a mortal blow, but it is bloody and painful as Sioned cries out a final time for Alruna.

In a blaze of radiant energy Alruna appears behind Davakara. Sioned sees a blaze of light eclipsed by the large Oni’s body, and then the tip of Alruna’s sword cuts through his side with a vengeful thrust. Davakara leaps backwards, and crying out “Damn, that hurts” he flies up and away and vanishes in mid-air. (Estevan puts his hands up before vanishing into the woods.) Sioned looks up at Alruna and tells her she’s okay now, but could use a ride. As Alruna stays she can feel Divine Power blazing through the feather and into her, the feather seems to get more “real” over time. (almost like it’s larger, heavier, denser, except that it’s not) Clasping hands with Sioned Alruna decides it is time to return. There is a thunderous flutter of black wings, and a feathery touch, and the forest is once again empty.

Back in the yard everyone is surprised as Sioned appears, standing over Alruna, armed, armored, sword in hand, and bloodied. For her part Alruna sits up, recovering consciousness now that her spirit has returned.

Simkins does not take to Sioned, whom he clearly considers flighty and prone to improvising things as she goes. He doesn’t like the sounds of her mysterious “employer” either, since she won’t give many details about them, not even naming Estevan nor the Consortium if I recall rightly. However, given what his friends have to say about her, he’ll grant that her desire to choose envoys and get moving is the right one. In the end it is decided: Sioned will lead the party out to seek Hestavar, Simkins will send Aeran with them to look after his interests, and Simkins will keep Wythe since he’ll want a wizard to help defend the valley. The settlers will contact the orc tribes to help scout the badlands, then they’ll take the materials for Erathis’s church and use them to build up a defensible position, while they do so the non-combatants will try to move south ahead of the horde, the hope is that they can hold out long enough for Erathis’s forces to relieve them.

Summoning Phantom Steeds and using the Traveler’s Chant Sioned immediately heads out, taking Wythe to open the shallowing to the Feywild.

On arrival in the Feywild the five heroes are attacked by fey guarding the passage from the World into the Feywild. Two dryads lead a pair of su monsters and a basilisk. The su monsters and basilisk fall, and the dryads end up negotiating peace with the party. Aliera and Mabh tell the party they are near to both the Labyrinth of Fathagn and the Sakbe of Kan Balaam. Sioned recognizes the Labyrinth, she knows it belongs to a fierce dryad queen and is rumored to have the First Tree at it’s heart, the Sakbe of Kan Balaam is not something she recognizes. (though Wythe told people he knew it was a great white road leading to a dark goblin city) Aliera warns Sioned not to trespass the Labyrinth lest she be slain by the guardians, but says that if they approach respectfully they may be able to treat with the druids there.

Heading towards the Labyrinth the party stops and pulls back at the first sign that the undergrowth is thickening and their path is appearing more clearly from the surrounding growth. Sioned knows that if she continues the undergrowth will turn into impenetrable walls stiffened by saplings, at which point everyone will be inevitably lost within the maze. The group spends almost an hour calling and waiting before an older human man will appear, he has a salt and pepper beard and calls himself Diarmuid. He asks their business and invites them to his hut to discuss it. He lives in a rough and simple wood cabin alongside a stream, he serves them simple food culled from the forest and fresh water. Diarmuid says that he knows of no portals in the area that they would wish to use, though he can get them into Mag Tureadh if they wish to try that dreadful place. (it is sure to have a portal to almost anywhere they want to go) The group says that’s not of interest to them and he sighs and asks them to wait while he finds a wiser head than his to ponder their needs.

Some hours later he returns to the cabin, walking alongside him is a magnificently beautiful woman. Or so she appears, as she draws near it becomes apparent she is a dryad of some sort. Diarmuid introduces the party to Surlief, handmaid to Queen Fathagn. Surlief says that she can’t offer the party any more ready route to The Land than through Mag Tureadh, but if they agree to send a merchant to her Queen with certain texts (that they will buy for a fair price) she can open a gate to either Astrazalian or Cendrianne for them.

Knowing that while Cendrianne almost certainly has plenty of portals to choose from it is also a dangerous city of ruins (from the Eladrin/Drow war) everyone agrees that Astrazalian is the better choice to start out from next. After all, if it’s the right season Astrazalian will actually be in The Land, which would make travel easy. And if Astrazalian is still in the Feywild, well, at least it’s a civilized place and will probably be easier to find a route out of than the deep wilds where they are now. Surlief casts a linked portal ritual, opening a gate to of of Astrazalian’s teleport circles. The party steps through the gate.

Five heroes emerge atop the ramparts of Astrazalian at the height of a Fomori-led assault on the walls of the city….

Six weeks after Alruna’s near-death experience with “Consumption” she is finally getting back into shape. As she finishes her morning exercises, in full armor, Tara approaches her. Tara’s spent weeks nursing her back to health, and tells Alruna she wishes she wouldn’t head back out so soon, she’s sure she’ll meet her death out in the wilds some day. She wonders, quite pointedly, why Alruna doesn’t just find a good man and settle down. But since she isn’t she asks Alruna to help her out with a small problem . . . .

Out in one of the high pastures Robb is working with Rook, Pieter, and Wythe. As they head back in to the ranch for breakfast Robb asks the three if they could help him and Alisse with a small problem. Everyone knows Alisse is pregnant, just as everyone is pointedly not saying anything about how Alisse and Robb have only been together for a few months and the pregnancy is clearly late-term. Robb reveals that the child is assuredly Bart’s, as he raped Alisse several times, each when he and his boys would come into Wycliffe. Robb then surprised everyone by saying that he and Alisse do not want to bear an orc baby, and asks for Pieter’s help with this.

No one expects the truth that is revealed, by Alisse to Alruna and Robb to the rest. The race of child in this world is not determined by who it’s parents are, but is instead determined by the god who crafts that child’s soul. As most of the local gods craft orc souls, which is why the natives to the Upper Berare river valley are orcs, it’s certain the baby will be an orc. (or at least a half-orc) If two people are both possessors of a god’s soul, and both still worship that god, then a foreign god could craft the soul instead of a local god, but as Alisse is a human and Robb an eladrin this isn’t possible. But Alisse has a plan, if the group can’t get Erathis to craft her a soul, which Erathis can’t do, they can instead try to bring the spring rains early. If they can release the Thunderbird from Grithka’s control early it will fly across the land bringing the spring rains early, and while the Thunderbird soars overhead all the land it brings rain to is under Grithka’s dominion. As such Grithka could craft a soul for their baby, and she makes goliath souls instead of orc or half-orc ones.

The party is highly skeptical.

However Ol’ Man Simkins’ voice carries a more respectable weight. And when he chimes in that an early spring would do a world of good for the folk of the valley and their cattle the group agrees to try. No one really knows how to get Grithka to send out the Thunderbird early so Simkins gives Alruna and the other three a small herd of cattle and a bag of gold to use to try to bribe the goddess into helping them out by releasing the Thunderbird early. The journey to Grithka’s city is uneventful, and though there’s no road leading to it it lies off a tributary of the Berare and the way is at least not difficult.

The four heroes know they’ve reached Grithka’s land when they follow a rapids upwards and crest a low ridge leading into a valley. In the valley lied a large, green, lake. Surrounding the lake are miles and miles of fields, being industriously worked by people. And in the midst of the fields, and next to the lake, lies a great city. (call it 40-50 thousand people) The city shines with white adobe walls, and in it’s center is a complex of great pyramids. At the other end of the valley a great volcano rises up towards the clouds.

As they approach the city they are stopped by a patrol under the command of a noble man, Seven Mantis. The patrol asks their business, and then escorts them into the city. As they pass through the mass of people and commerce it is apparent that this city is very much alive and well. At the base of one of the four great pyramid-temples the noble hands them over to a priest and departs with his patrol to tend his lands again. The priest hears their mission and has them wait while he calls down Fourteen Water Turtle, a higher-ranking priest of Grithka.

Fourteen Water Turtle welcomes them in Grithka’s name, and (very formally) agrees to hear their words on her behalf. He does not refuse their offer of a sacrifice, but clearly can’t accept it either, and so tells them to depart and return the next morning with their offering. Unsure of what they’ve done wrong, but aware they chose the wrong thing to sacrifice, the group spends a night asking around as to what Grithka would like in sacrifice. They determine her favorite sacrifices are of food bought from the peasants and of service, in the form of time spent healing and caring for the poor. They then sell off the cattle in the market and buy as much produce and goods from the people there as they can, and the bearer’s to carry it to the temple as well.

The next morning goes much better. Fourteen Water Turtle is very pleased to accept their offer of healing services, from Pieter, and to accept the goods they offer in Grithka’s name as well. Leading them to the top of a low pyramid he leads the group in a prayer to Grithka, and conducts a ritual sacifice of a bit of food from each of the baskets that a long string of bearers carry up to the top of the pyramid. The party notices that the vast majority of the goods and food from the market make their way right back down the other side of the pyramid and into priestly buildings. (later they will also notice early morning crowds of the poor and hungry being given food and supplies from those same buildings, it is apparent Grithka cares about her people, or at least her priests do)

The sacrifice complete Fourteen Water Turtle leads the group down from the temple towards the Emperor’s Palace. There he reveals he is more than just a priest of Grithka as he blithely walks past guards who all defer to him. He stops, eventually, before an official and declares he wishes to speak with his nephew. The official brings him, and the party, into a golden audience chamber where they all can see the Emperor conducting business. After he finishes with his current task, mediating a conflict between two noble families, Fourteen Water Turtle brings the party to the front and introduces them to his nephew One Reed Wind, the Emperor. They tell One Reed Wind of their mission.

One Reed Wind cautions them that what they intend is very dangerous. But if they are determined he will do what he can to aid them. He says that if they wish to release the Thunderbird they shall have to enter the spirit-world. There they must travel from Grithka’s Temple into the depths of the earth seeking out the palace of Tenochpotetl The Fire Lord. If they can survive the journey The Fire Lord will challenge them, and if they have the courage and strength to meet his challenge he will release the Thunderbird to them, which will allow Grithka to let it fly free. Normally her greatest angel would make the journey, but as the angel’s strength waxes and wanes with the seasons it will not be strong enough to win the Thunderbird from The Fire Lord for many weeks to come. (which coincides with spring’s normal onset)

The next morning finds the party, Fourteen Water Turtle, One Reed Wind, and a host of other priests of Grithka’s atop the largest temple in the city. Atop the Temple of the Moon the group begins a sacred ritual designed to send the heroes into the spirit-world. Sacrifices are offered, and at the end of the ritual each of the heroes gives their blood to the flames of the sacrificial fire. As the smoke from their blood rises up, so to do they, pulled out of their bodies and translated into spirit.

In the spirit-world the party finds itself atop a vast pyramid. Below them vast fields of people stretch forth, covering the valley floor. It is then that they notice the figure of a magnificently beautiful woman, turned away from them observing the fields. As they say that she must be aware of them she turns and says that indeed she is. Grithka asks them if they are certain of their task. She asks why they would do this thing, and seems disinclined to help them until they mention that they are doing it for a young woman and her child’s soul. After hearing that she takes pity upon Alisse and agrees to give her a soul from her fields if Pieter can indeed get her brother The Fire Lord to release the Thunderbird early. With a dizzying change of perspective the Temple of the Moon becomes the volcano Popochtepatl, and with that change the party can now see a dark tunnel leading down into the heart of the volcano. With Grithka standing watch over the entrance they descend into the earth.

Descending downwards they pass through tunnels and caverns, the air gets warmer and warmer as they descend. Soon caverns begin to show the heat, pools of lava begin to appear. Entering into one particular cavern, where lava pools line the walls and a stream of lava falls from the ceiling to form another pool, they are assaulted by fiery beasts and demons. Defeating them they continue downwards, eventually entering a vast cavern. In the center of the cavern they can see a magnificent palace, surrounded by a lake of lava. At the lake’s edge there is a great gate, think Shinto temple-gate, over a path leading to the bridge over the lake. At the gate stands a great fiery angel, and extending away, along the lake-side, is a legion of angels. The party informs the angel of their purpose, and it allows them to pass onwards to The Fire Lord’s palace.

Inside the palace they, eventually, find The Fire Lord himself. He sits atop a great golden throne, with a wall of fire between him and any petitioners. He hears their petition, and says that if they wish it he will gift them the Thunderbird, but he will test their courage and skill first to be sure they are worthy. Everyone agrees, and he summons up fire elementals and fiery archons to assault them.

The fight itself is anti-climactic. By drinking potions of fire resistance the party neutralizes the strengths of the fiery challengers. The archons hold out for a while, and one spars with Alruna for most of the fight. But nothing they or the elementals do can seriously hurt the party.

(note that this is actually the break-point for the game-session. the rest of this story actually takes place during the first part of the session the following week but will be included here to make the story easier to follow)

After defeating the challenge The Fire Lord applauds the heroes, not mockingly but very seriously. He commends their spirit, most mortals lack the courage to confront gods in their own homes, and he says that he will honor his words as their courage has honored him. With a wave of his hand a great metal pillar grows out the floor, and turns into a large, golden, cage. Within waits a great bird made of flames and black smoke. The Fire Lord vanishes, leaving the party with the Thunderbird.

They speak to it, explaining their purpose, and then release it from the cage. There is a tangible feel of raw power as it sweeps out of the palace on fiery wings of smoke.

Returning to the surface the party finds Grithka still standing guard over the entrance to her brother’s realm. On her shoulder the Thunderbird sits, impatiently given how it shifts around and startles. Grithka says the Thunderbird must gain strength before it can fly forth, and with a great scream it leaps from her shoulder into the air. It ascends to circle above the volcano, where a dark cloud forms, lightning flickering within it.

Grithka then says one more thing before returning the heroes to their mortal bodies. She offers that if “their goddess” (Erathis) does intend to come to this world that she (Grithka) will offer friendship to her. Grithka further says that if Erathis wishes she will teach her the secret of soul-crafting, but that Erathis must send a messenger of greater strength to carry the secret to her, for it would destroy any mortal to whom it is imparted.

As Wythe, Alruna, and Rook vanish from the spirit-world she bends down to Pieter and says that now “I will take my price for what you wish” and leaning in towards him she kisses him. Though it’s brief it’s quite memorable. With that he too vanishes from the spirit-world. The four questers awake atop the pyramid to discover the day is mostly gone despite only an hour or so appearing to have passed in the spirit-world. The next day they spend recovering, and healing the needy.

Before they depart a runner finds them on their way out of the city and begs that they come attend upon his mistress, a noble lady named Three Rabbit. The group agrees and finds themselves awaiting her in a comfortable garden courtyard at her house. Three Rabbit is an elderly woman who also happens to be an oracle, and when she appears she tells Pieter she must tell him of her recent vision. Three Rabbit speaks of an oncoming flood, and of how dangerous it is. She says she has seen a great shrine, carried upon the backs of slaves, and knows it is drawing near the Berare river valley. She warns them again of the danger, but has nothing else to offer beyond those words and her vision. Pieter thanks her, and the group departs the city to return to the Simkins’ ranch.

At the ranch there is much rejoicing. In fact the news of an early spring is so good that the folk of the valley gather together at the Simkins’ ranch for a good old-fashioned shindig. There’s music, dancing, lots of drinking, good food, and a lot of match-making.

The session opens with Alruna standing near a sick-bed, which is being attended by Tara and Melissande. As she approaches she discovers that the person dying abed is herself, and she’s a spirit. She proves to be trapped, tethered to her body by an invisible force. As Alruna’s body begins dying she sees a light from “above”, and soon is joined by Akasha. Akasha mentions something about this being the second time she’s come for Alruna, but the conversation mostly centers around a deal she offers Alruna. She tells Alruna that her friends, who are trying to save her, are in grave danger and are likely to die soon. But she offers Alruna a blessing from the Raven Queen, the power to send her spirit to aid anyone who calls upon her name if she wishes to. There is a price, a soul needs to be given to the Raven Queen. Akasha is clear it’s not Alruna’s soul, nor anyone she knows, but is also honest about it being the soul of an innocent. In order to serve her god, Erathis, and the charge to protect Pieter, and the larger goal of expanding into this world, Alruna agrees. Somewhere in Port Liberty a young death-cultist of the Raven Queen, and a young mother, does something unspeakable and Alruna feels a wash of divine power enter her, imbuing her with the power to escape even Death Itself for a time when she is called by those in need. She knows it will work but three times, Akasha warns her the magic to use it more than that would burn out her mortal soul.

Deep in the depths of the earth four heroes desperately battle against abominations and a great black pudding, they are failing. Akasha whispers in Wythe’s ear, “If you would live, call to her.” Wythe calls out to Erathis, who does not answer. Akasha whispers to Rook, “If you would live, call to Her.” Rook does not, death is no stranger to him. Akasha whispers to Pieter, “If you would live, Call To Her!” Pieter calls out to Alruna and Erathis to aid him. And though he chooses the wrong god to call to, his call is not unheard by Alruna’s spirit. (now nearly taken by the Raven Queen)

There is a blaze of radiance that fills the grotto deep beneath the earth where four heroes battle desperately. In that blaze of light Alruna appears, shining bright radiance around the whole cavern. She engages a destrachan, keeping it from continuing to blast the heroes. Even with the “angelic” aid of Alruna the battle is tremendously difficult. Many people are engulfed by the black pudding. Wythe and Aeran are both knocked unconscious. And everyone is so damaged that without Pieter’s consecrated ground it is certain the foul abominations would have won. When the fight is gone the vision of Alruna vanishes, leaving our heroes in darkness.

Back at the Simkin’s ranch Alruna seems to have fought death off for a time, her body survives the coughing fit and lies more peacefully. (though it seems as if she’s become weaker since Alruna’s spirit can now wander farther from her body before being pulled back) Akasha is still there, and shows Alruna a vision of her companions descending further, seeking Yuggoth’s shrine. The vision expands outward and she can see them approaching a kingdom of myconids. She has Akasha whisper guidance in Rook’s ear that helps the party avoid the myconid patrols guarding their kingdom. But in the end the heroes must pass one of the guard-posts, Rook charges it leading a successful battle, though Pieter fails to catch an escaping guard. Aeran then sets up an ambush point from which the party destroys the reinforcements summoned to help the guard-post. Wythe uses his magic to shield the party from the onslaught of Yuggoth’s thoughts, and with Alruna and Akasha’s guidance they proceed further towards the shrine. There is a massive battle in which they barely manage to split the myconid army’s lines, after which the survivors flee into the darkness as the party decimates the myconids.

Entering into a massive cavern the four heroes finally approach the Shrine of Yuggoth. As they approach the oddly organic-feeling shrine an Angel of Valor appears to challenge them. “Be Thou Afraid oh invaders. And then Be Thou Dead,” the angel intones. At it’s words a pair of shambling mounds rise from the fungi covering the floor and beetles swarm together to attack the heroes, lastly, but not least, a host of angelic legions arises.

The angelic legions charge the group. The Angel of Valor rises on wings of black power to fly above the battle, seeking the leader of these invaders. Aeran is bloodied in a single attack from one of the horrible shambling mounds of fungi and vegetation, which then pulls him inside itself so it can feed on him. The swarm advances, and the angelic hosts charge Pieter. It is at this point that Alruna finally decides to enter the battle, after ignoring several pleas for aid. The Angel of Valor then leads the hosts against Pieter, and despite Alruna’s aid the party is pushed back again and again. In desperation, surrounded by enemies, Wythe drops a Winter’s Wrath at his own feet, hoping to catch some of the angels in the blast. He is more successful than he dreamed even his nightmares (as he crits himself). But in the end the Yuggoth’s defenders fall.

After Alruna disappears the party takes a desperately needed rest during which Crazy Horse appears, it seems he’s been following them. It turns out that his “crazy” is uniquely tailored to act as a conduit between humanoid thought and the remarkably alien thoughts of Yuggoth. With him as a translator the group threatens to destroy Yuggoth’s shrine if he does not release Alruna from his power, and if he does they will depart peacefully. Crazy Horse tells them Yuggoth agrees to the bargain.

Back at the ranch grandma is beating off the injuns . . . .. I mean, Alruna sees the end of the affair in Yuggoth’s shrine before Akasha departs and her world turns to black as her spirit is reclaimed by her, disease-ravaged, body. She wakes, but it terribly weakened and barely alive. It will be weeks of healing, followed by more weeks of hard work, before she can possibly be in shape for anything strenuous like combat or adventuring.

The story begins with the drive being sold off in Kanda City. Simkins pays everyone off, and gives them a few days to waste while he gets a wagon train of supplies for the folks on the Upper Berare river together. Rook spends the time drinking, the rest stay out of trouble. Robb asks for some advice about himself and Alise and is told (by pretty much everyone) “Man up boy, life’s hard and you have to make choices, so make the decision. In the end Robb convinces Alise to join him and his mother in moving to the Berare River valley, Mel has decided to go work for the Simkin’s ranch.

The wagon train arrives without event, several days pass as it’s unloaded and people head to their homesteads.

Once things stabilize a bit life begins in earnest. Simkins and his folks begin looking into their herds, and into where to raise a church to Erathis. (as he’d sworn, and he doesn’t break his word) One day, while working a herd in a valley up in the hills, the group discovers that the cows in this herd are looking sickly. Some investigation reveals that many have died recently, from lung diseases. The whole valley seems to be sprouting up fungi in various forms. As everyone begins rounding up the cattle to drive them to another valley Alruna is struck by a falling bit of rot as she passes under a tree. She falls from her horse, which soon keels over and dies. Alruna tries to get to her feet a few times before collapsing, and then passes out while trying to crawl out from under the trees. Aeran succeeds in lassoing her shield and the group pulls her out into the open. Pieter checks her over and discovers that she seems to be dying from a long-term lung infection, like the cattle. It looks like she’s been infected for months, clearly a supernatural agency has been involved. Some spellcraft reveals that a divine miracle has taken place, but nothing more is found about what happened.

Returning with Alruna, who is put under Mel and Tara Simkins’ care. (Tara is Dar’n Simkins sister-in-law and is an old hatchet of a woman who runs the ranch with an Iron Fist that even Dar’n himself won’t buck.) In an outlying field they find Boss Simkins and ask for his advice. Dar’n tells them it sounds like Alruna has run foul of “Ol’ Yuggie”, one of the local gods. He doesn’t have much to say about Yuggoth except to note that he’s popular with the young, and is old enough that he mostly sleeps a lot. He does say they could find Crazy Horse and ask him, and directs them upriver if they want to find him.

Heading up the Berare Pieter asks at each homestead he comes across about Crazy Horse. At Jeb’s ranch they finally put together a story. Many years ago a dwarf from the old world arrived, with his wife. When Roj Baker’s wife was killed he abandoned his life and lands. Wandering the hills Roj came to believe in, and worship Yuggoth. He went native, taking a native wife, and changing his name to Crazy Horse. Over the years since then he’s wandered the local area acting as a priest of Yuggoth and generally being a crazy hermit. He doesn’t know where he is now, but says that if they head NE of the Berare into the hills they might be able to find Crazy Horse’s home.

Wythe confirms that there’s something magical going on to the NE of Jeb’s place, across the river, that seems to be affecting the weather in a broad way and is divine in nature. Pieter leads the group into the winding box canyons and valleys in the hills seeking for a good hill from which to look out for sign of Crazy Horse. Rook does some mountain climbing to set pitons and ropes in place, because heavily armored people don’t get to the tops of hills without help. And once atop a few hills Aeran and the group try to spot signs of humanoid habitation. Off in a distant valley they see a trickle of smoke rising into the sky.

Entering the valley in question after a few hours hiking they spot a sod cabin at the other end, near a pond. Around the house are ritually butchered carcasses, skeletons hung up, and plenty of evidence that the inhabitant seriously nuts. The valley itself seems to harbor a prolific amount of fungus as well. As they approach the cabin a crazy dwarf, entirely naked, with one blind eye, wielding a staff comes out to confront them.

Crazy Horse proves to live up to his name. He’s bugger-nuts crazy, drifting in and out of reality, and is completely incapable of a coherent conversation. It seems he’s been eating the “magic mushrooms” a bit too much. Due to some insightful analysis of the fractured conversations he has by Wythe the group figures out more about Yuggoth and learn an ancient tale that may help them out.

Many years before Roj Baker became Crazy Horse there was an Indian maid who was taken by Yuggoth, just as Alruna was. Her beloved, a formidable brave, set forth from his tribe to seek Yuggoth’s shrine so that he could bargain for her life. Once there the brave was cast aside by Yuggoth for he had nothing of value to the Fungal Lord. Unwilling to relinquish his intended bride the brave then killed everyone in the shrine, he then held Yuggoth to ransom threatening to violate (or even destroy) his shrine unless he released the Indian maid. Yuggoth relented, and the on returning to his tribe the brave found the maid had been healed.

There is a good bit of lying involved in getting Crazy Horse to reveal where the shrine is. He’s not about to betray his god, but by convincing him they are pilgrims going with him to the shrine the group manages to get him to divulge the location. They are warned that it’s very dangerous, there are the Children of Yuggoth who guard the entrance. Within lie the abhomination-filled perils of the underearth, and deep below the Shrine of Yuggoth lies within a kingdom of fungi. When Crazy Horse heads into his cabin to get some things for the pilgrimage the group bolts, leaving him behind.

After more travel they find the valley Crazy Horse has directed them too and begin searching for the entrance to the shrine. They are unsuccessful in concealing their search and are attacked by a band of troglodytes (Yuggoth’s Children). The fight is quite nasty, and though they do slay some warriors and a shaman they only succeed in driving off the troglodyte javelineers, who retreat to play Adam and Eve for their Fungal God. Inside the group finds a lapis lazuli, crudely carved, fetish of Yuggoth, which is worth 500 gp to anyone who buys lapis. They also find a tunnel leading further down.

Below the entrance cave the tunnel quickly breaks into a meshing network of tunnels and caverns the group must search. Some time and effort are put into the search. Soon enough the party runs into trouble, as they enter a cavern they see (and are seen by) several horrors. A fierce black ooze squidges out of a glowing pool to attack and bottle them up while a displacer beast and a destrachan attack from range. Two alpha gricks also move to engage. Despite petrifying the ooze and one of the gricks for a time, and despite a brilliant blow by Aeran that practically kills the displacer beast, the fight is very dangerous. Many people are bloodied, healing words are used, and most of the enemy is still standing, and are in fine shape.

The session begins with Pieter, back in the chuck-wagon w. Melissande and the drive. He is terribly fevered, and delerious, but is driven to consciousness by the voice of Erathis speaking in his head. She urges him north, immediately, saying if he does not hurry Wycliffe will surely perish. Despite opposition from Simkins and Melissande Pieter mounts up and rides north, swaying in his saddle. The next several days are a blur. Exhaustion, divine will driving him onwards, and visions of a vicious cavalry officer all combine such that Pieter recalls little as he rides down a valley towards a small town. All he can recall well is that this is the town in his visions, and that if he doesn’t warn his companions that the Oni Mage Davakara (summoned with an evil scroll by Vailor) is coming as an assassin in the night they shall all surely die, and Wycliffe with them. He stumbles off his horse and up some stairs in the building he’s been shown by Erathis.

The party wakes to Pieter pounding on their doors. Just in time as Davakara, disguised as Mary, appears at the top of the stairs and blasts most of them with lightning before retreating downstairs. Alruna charges after her, clad only in nightclothes, bearing sword and shield. Aeran and Rook are close behind. In common room of Mary’s a battle of wait and watch begins, some blows are exchanged before Davakara pulls back to the street. Outside, in the street, the battle resumes for a few more swings. But once bloodied Davakara declares “I haven’t been paid enough by Vailor to die for him. You’ve won safety from me this time.” He bows as he rises into the air and vanishes.

Pieter is given some critical help in tending his wounds and the disease that’s been ravaging him. The fever drops enough that he is no longer dazed all the time, and when told of the situation he begins preparing for battle.

The first of the Roughriders to arrive is Captain Viridian, sent ahead by Col. Vailor for a sneak attack on the town after he found his own point force was wiped out. Viridian charges into town and towards Alruna who is standing in the center of Main Street waiting for him. He then sees a third of his force fall prey to the trap the townfolk have dug. He leaps the pit to spar with Alruna, several of his Roughriders try to leap the pit but fail and fall into the pit or are thrown from their horses when the horses balk. His sergeant begins shooting the party with deadly-accurate poisoned crossbow fire. The party attacks, and calls the townfolk atop the roofs to join in firing down on the Roughriders. In the end Viridian dies, and most of his troops with him, the sergeant and a few riders escape to return to the Colonel.

The main force of Roughriders sets up an HQ atop a low hill a few miles from town. From there the Colonel directs units of men to begin burning the fields and the outlying buildings. In the town the villagers begin to despair. The party considers briefly, then waits for a time when the detached units are too far from the Colonel to support him. They come charging out of Wycliffe, heading straight for Col. Vailor and his HQ. Seeing he can’t call back forces before they get to him the Col. detaches his sergeant and troops to attack the five as he takes his headquarters company into the field. He uses bugle calls to direct some of the detached units to unite with his headquarters.

The sergeant and his unit rapidly close with the five heroes charging out from Wycliffe. The skirmish turns nasty as he directs sub-groups of Roughriders to deal with each hero. He uses his net to restrain Alruna, leaving her tied up with Roughriders. Wythe runs into some trouble as a quartet of riders surround him, he is forced to teleport off his mount to take shelter near Rook. But in the end the Roughriders don’t have the strength to stand against their opponents, and the sergeant perishes soon after all his men are down. A few minutes to catch their breath reveal to the heroes the tactical situation.

Col. Vailor has taken his reformed headquarters into the town center and is raising hell. Robb and Luke are both leading forces of town-folk fighting units of Roughriders who have charged in at the Colonel’s command (damn bugle-calls), one on each side of the town. As they watch Luke falls trying to turn the tide as his town-folk’s battle-line begins to collapse against the bandit’s pressure. Robb has left his unit and is charging to the town-center to face Colonel Vailor. Realizing the moment in which the battle is decided has come the party charges the town-center!

As the five charge into town they find themselves facing the same trap Capt. Viridian had been up against. To them it proves less of an obstacle. The Colonel and his berserker bodyguards prove quite vicious and, with support from other Roughriders, do some serious damage to Alruna and Wythe. Neither Rook nor Aeran escape the enemies notice. Pieter is forced into summoning his healing spirit lest the battle be lost. But after the Roughriders are mostly downed the berserkers fall. Once the berserkers are down it soon comes down to Colonel Vailor standing alone. Golden hair waving in the wind, having lost his cavalry hat, Vailor refuses to die. He swings at everyone around him, but in the end is brought down by the combined strength of his enemies. He dies in the middle of Main St., Wycliffe, his story ended. Robb on the other hand does not die, he lies unconscious, critically wounded by the Colonel. But is saved from death, to spend a few days recovering in the company of Alise.

The folks of Wycliffe rejoice and celebrate, after fixing up things a bit. Several days pass as Pieter recovers in a sick bed. Magic items are found. Eventually Simkins and the drive will arrive. Picking up their wounded Simkins and his men will proceed onwards to the lightning rail. There they summon engines and cattle-cars to take the herd to Kanda City, where Boss Simkins will sell it. He pays out everyone absolutely fairly. Herd owners get the value of their herds, less the cattle contributed to paying for the drive, everyone else gets an equal share of the contribution. Shares are set aside for the family of those who died on the Drive to the Railhead.

The drive continues on up the Rioja and after several more weeks crosses over the Taloq river where it joins the Rioja.

Pieter takes ill and is confined to the chuck-wagon to recover from his fevered state. Surrounded by Mistress Mel’s trio of young girls, and beside a fairly unhappy baby, this is either domestic bliss or the purest torture conceivable depending on how you feel about such things. Either way, it’s memorable, even through fever-dreams.

Boss Simkins gathers the drive up and explains that he’s going to send some scouts ahead. He’s heard that there may be an easier pass to use to get to Fort Lamarre. It’s further up the Rioja than Jonner’s Pass, the regular route for the drive, but if it’s easier on the cattle it’ll easily be worth it. He details Jeb and Aeran to each take a handful of men, “and you too Miss Alruna if’n you don’t mind,” and ride out ahead of the drive. They’ll reach the split in a week or so, and each should take their boys to scout the various routes. If they return to the split in three weeks they should arrive about the same time the drive will, and Simkins can then choose the best route.

Jeb and Aeran split ways at Jonner’s Pass. A coin-flip has Jeb and his boys riding Jonner’s Pass to scout it for the drive while Aeran is to scout further up the Rioja for the rumored better route to Fort Lamarre. A few days later another split takes place as Aeran, Wythe, and Robb go to investigate a possible pass while Alruna and Rook ride a bit further along the Rioja, the two groups will re-unite in a few hours, around high-noon.

The trio rides over a low pass between two hills and find the landscape rapidly changing around them. Whereas most of the Rioja river-valley is scrub and low brush over the pass there is a well-watered valley that opens up before them. It stretches away to the northeast, towards Ft. Lamarre, and has green grass and an easy route for the cattle. Near a small lake in the center of the valley is a small village.

As they ride into the village of Wycliffe they notice two unusual things. First, despite the well-tended fields around the town the town itself appears quite poor. Second, as they approach most of the (thin and hungry-looking) villagers clear the streets pulling children off them and into their houses. As they ride into the center of town Old Man Terl steps out into the middle of the street to talk to them. He determines they aren’t bandits, and welcomes them to have a drink or two before moving on. The four men head indoors entering Mary’s the local saloon.

Mary gets Wythe a whiskey, and Aeran a local beer as they chat with Old Man Terl. Robb asks Wythe for the coins to get a drink, and when refused goes outside to tend to the horses. Aeran and Wythe get the feeling something’s amiss, but Terl ain’t telling and Wythe’s gut-instincts tell him it’s from fear of something so neither push the issue. Terl does tell them that Jonner’s Pass is now dangerous territory, and that the Federal Lightning Rail is working to push a spur from Ft. Lamarre to the Rioja that will pass through Wycliffe.

As folk talk with Old Man Terl, asking for more details about the rail, there is the sound of a female scream from outside. It is followed by another scream, and a male bellow of rage. Aeran races to the front window and finds that he can’t see Robb, and that the streets have been cleared of folk again, continued screams from an alley beyond indicate something bad is up. Wythe and Aeran race outside and around the corner to see what is happening, they see a girl screaming in fear and between them and the girl is the silhouette of Robb with a bloody Bowie-knife in one hand standing up from the body of another man on the ground. Before anyone can begin questioning what’s happened the girl flings herself into Robb’s arms and begins sobbing frantically.

Rook turns back down the Rioja to rejoin Aeran, Wythe, and Robb. Alruna says she’ll be right behind him, she just needs to check out one more possible pass away from the river. Riding on he heads up the pass and down into Wycliffe. As he rides into town he discovers a commotion; Aeran seems to be trying to keep a crowd of townfolk back from Wythe and Robb, who is comforting a sobbing town-girl.

Robb claims he was just relaxing in the shade when he first met Alise (eh-LEES-ah), the local girl, as she walked by Mary’s. The two got to talking and discovered they had several things in common despite him being eladrin and she a human. Some time later a man rode into town and began pestering Alise. When he pulled her into an alley and Robb heard her scream he ran to her aid. The man drew on him, and Robb defended himself. Robb says he didn’t mean to kill him, “but I couldn’t let him hurt Alise, so I tried to stab him in the leg, but in the heat of the fight I missed.” Robb’s knife went cleanly into the man’s chest, killing him almost instantly. Alise backs Robb’s story 100% as Robb falls to his knees and vomits up everything he’s eaten over the past few days, or at least it feels that way to Robb. (first kill nerves you know)

The town panics. The man turns out to be Bart Lassur, a bandit riding with Colonel Vailor’s Roughriders. The unit went bandit after the Alliance failed to win the war and their home state joined the Federation. Currently the Roughriders have become a band of vicious bandits who’ve been terrorizing the local towns, after taking all their weapons so that no one can resist them. Bart’s brother Jark Lassur, and his boys, are certain to be coming to town soon. A local pointing across the valley to the north says he just saw a group of men riding down into the valley, there’s at most a few hours before they arrive. Aeran, Wythe, and Rook plan an ambush in town. They order Robb to wait in Mary’s Saloon so that if the bandits win at least someone will survive to warn Boss Simkins.

Alruna discovers, as she expected, that what looked like a pass between two hills turns out to be far too difficult terrain for a cattle drive and turns back to rejoin the crew. Riding along the Rioja she turns off to head up the pass towards Wycliffe. As she rides into town she sees eight men on horses hooting and hollering and causing trouble on the town’s main street. She notices a woman slam shutters closed on a second-floor window, and a small boy peering out from behind curtains. As she begins to suspect something is up she sees Rook hiding behind a building corner. As the high-noon’s sun blazes, baking the small town, she gets the feeling there’s Trouble In Wycliffe. (the soundtrack plays music apropos to a high-noon showdown on Main St.)

Robb bursts out of Mary’s Saloon to warn Alruna, and the fight begins.

Jark Lassur charges Alruna while his bandits and a slaver tangle with the rest of Aeran’s crew. After a few bandits go down Jark leaves Alruna off to try to help his men, to no avail. In the end he declares he’ll try to hold ‘em off and orders his second-in-command to retreat and warn the Colonel. The slaver nearly escapes, but Wythe’s stinking cloud brings his horse down, thus ending his attempted escape.

As the town undertaker begins fitting the corpses for coffins the town panics. Col. Vailor is now certain to kill them all, and he’s due in town in a few days to collect their “tribute.”

The group convinces the men of Wycliffe to take up the weapons they have gotten from Bart and Jark’s men. The others arm themselves with pitchforks and home-made spears. Under Wythe’s leadership they start fortifying the town, setting traps for horses and blocking off routes of approach. Aeran begins training the villagers to fight together with what weapons they have. Alruna determines there’s no good points in the hills to position scouts while Robb gets bandages and healing supplies together and organizes the women and children of the town to help heal the wounded when the battle comes. Rook thinks over how past similar battles have gone and determines there is a real need for scouting, an essential need. So Aeran takes to the hills and finds some good hiding places where scouts can observe the approaches to the valley but still be able to retreat unseen to warn everyone of what they find.

Days pass in a montage of preparation.

One evening, after an exhausting day of work, a scout comes racing into Mary’s Saloon. He tells everyone that he’s seen the main force of the Roughriders, they’re approaching from the north. He says the main force is camped about a half-day’s ride up the next valley, but that they’ve broken off a scouting force of a dozen or so men who are mere hours away from Wycliffe. Wythe and Aeran both agree that taking out the scouts now, while they’re separated, is clearly the right answer and the four (leaving Robb behind in Wycliffe) set off for a fight.

They try sneaking up on the bandits, but one of them spots Rook as he creeps towards the camp and combat ensues. The group’s mage is one of the first casualties, targeted strongly by Rook. Their leader directs the rest of the outlaws, but falls to Aeran’s blade. Two javelineers try to take out Wythe, but fail. The rest of the men go down fairly quickly once everyone else is dead.

Returning to town everyone finds that they’ve been joined by one of Jeb’s boys. Luke says that he and Jeb encounterd bandits in Jonner’s Pass. Though they lost Bar and Natch, the rest escaped the bandits. Jeb and Quexchil, the sole Mixtec (the hobgoblin empire to the south) are riding hell-bent for the drive to warn Boss Simkins. Jeb sent Luke on to warn Aeran about the bandits.

So now there are six, count them, Six heroes to defend Wycliffe. I wonder where the Seventh “Samurai” could be . . . ..

The only thing anyone knows for certain is that the coming dawn will bring the bandit onslaught.

The session opens with a flashback detailing how Aeran came to be with Boss Simkins and won his trust by saving a favored grand-daughter during a barn fire.

The scene quickly shifts to current-Aeran, now asleep in the chuck-wagon. He dreams of his escape from the City of Brass, and his time training and growing up in the Shadowfell and how he left there for the prime Carta. In particular he’s shown how at a few steps along the way Akasha intervened in occasionally subtle, and occasionally not, ways to ensure his survival and training. The dream ends as he wakes, and hears the whisper of her voice in his ear telling him that things are changing and he should seek to learn more of “the Lady’s ways.” When he wakes a long, silky, raven’s feather falls from his chest to the ground, he pockets it unseen by anyone and rousts himself to the chaos in the camp.

It seems the camp outriders standing watch have captured a horse-thief. The thief seems to be a young eladrin boy, looks like a local farm-boy actually. Boss Simkins says that he can’t take the boy with them to the judge for trial, and he “ain’t willin’ to hang ‘im ‘less it’s done fair and proper.” He and Jeb put their heads together and declare that as most of the boys on the drive have a stake in it none of them are fit to act as judge or jury, almost all the cowboys in Simkin’s drive are just ranchers who have joined their herds together for the cattle-drive. Dar’n (Boss Simkin’s given name) decides that the thing to do is to appoint Pieter and his “boys” (Simkins actually says, ”..., and you as well Miss Alruna if that’s all right with you.”) to investigate the affair and judge what is to be done. But since he’ll need to be sure it’s done proper he requires them to take his “trusty”, Aeran, along with them so he (and the whole of the drive) can be assured the whole things fair. Everyone agrees to this, though the drive as a whole grumbles pretty loudly about it as they’re of the “Hang ‘em high” school of horse-thievin’.

Questioning the suspect reveals that he’s what he seems. Rob says he’s a farm-boy who’s father died in a plague last year, he’s been trying to keep the farm going for his ma and his sisters and baby brother, but the land just ain’t no good. They’re on their last legs. Which is, of course, the point at which it went worse . . . . their plow-horses died. Now the whole family is probably doomed; bad land, no plow-horses, no more money, nowhere to go. So he thought that if he could just steal a pair of horses from the drive as it went by maybe, just maybe, he could save his family. Foolish youth combined with a lack of anything to lose prompted him to try to follow through on his idea.

Boss Simkin’s isn’t particularly moved by the boy’s story, but is a good enough man that he can’t discount it entirely. He says he’ll hold off the drive from lynching the boy for a time, but that Pieter needs to find out the truth of the matter. If he can save the family Boss Simkin’s would be happiest, even if he has to hang the boy he doesn’t care for the blood of innocents to be on his hands, and he feels strongly that “folk oughta stick together out here, it’s a hard enough world as is and it’s just worse if’n we take it on alone.” He warns Pieter that he’ll likely have to hang the boy if he isn’t to lead the drive to questioning his leadership and decision-making capacity.

Pieter and his companions, plus Aeran, ride off to investigate further. Just a short distance away they find a farmhouse. The situation is pretty much just what was described by Rob. The group are stopped at the farm-yard by an eladrin woman standing in the doorway who warns them off, “I have a bow, and children inside to protect” she says, and does though she hasn’t drawn the arrow yet. Alruna calms her down and she agrees to let the five in to talk provided all of them except Alruna leave their weapons outside.

Inside the claustrophobic confines of a frontier house, sod walls and only one room, she offers them what little hospitality she has. The party declines as “grass soup” isn’t really on their list of acceptable cuisine. They also note that she has three young girls and a baby as well, confirming Rob again.

She turns out be Melissande Darkleaf, a cousin of Res’Tar Blackrock who was forced to flee Maelgrimm many years ago when Prince John (she spits at his name) took over the kingdom. Her husband and her managed to escape with only what they could carry away from their estates. They took ship for the New World and, along with some other nobles, pooled their goods to form a wagon-train into the wilds with which to seek new lands. Some of the noble’s died on the way, most of them settled on poor lands further downriver, but her husband and she tried to push on as long as they could in the hopes of finding some decent farmland to make a new life on. It didn’t work out and this was as far as they got. She hasn’t seen her son Robert since last night, and is desperately worried once told what’s happened to him.

After convincing Mel to come back to the drive the group decides to try to convince the ranchers towards lenience for Rob. They make several arguments ranging from compassion to greed, including even legalistic “But he didn’t actually succeed so there wasn, technically, no crime.” The cattle-men are skeptical, but in the end are convinced that hanging Rob isn’t the right answer. Boss Simkins accepts Pieter’s solution, Rob will be indentured without pay for the duration of the drive and let go afterwards. Dar’n asks Aeran to take a place riding with Pieter so that he can put Melissande and her kids in the chuck-wagon since they’ll die if left alone on the farm.

There’s some grumbling over the next few days about the whole affair. Everyone is so busy healing hard-pressed cattle, scouting the trail, riding herd, and doing the thousands of other exhausting details that make up a cattle-drive that the grumbling soon recedes. It helps that while Rob is utterly clueless as a hand he’s good-natured, learns quickly (except about riding a horse), and works himself to the bone.

A few more days pass uneventfully when Pieter and his crew find themselves riding herd on a few hundred head of cattle as they pass alongside the river between it’s banks and a low hill. Scrub-brush and wind-whipped trees cover the ground. They all notice a grinding sound beneath their feet, soon after they see a low mound, as if a creature is burrowing underneath it, approaching. In moments all hell breaks loose as a bulette bursts forth from the ground seeking prey. The cattle scatter in terror. Aeran gets badly bitten by the bulette, but in the end they defeat it without loss of any cattle, though their horses get a bit bruised. Boss Simkins thanks them later that evening for their good work that day.

The last event of note before the drive leaves The Badlands takes place soon thereafter. It seems a good day as Pieter and “his boys” (Miss Alruna included) are working driving a few hundred head of cattle along the Rioja river. A low rumbling growing louder, and the shaking of the earth, are the only warning they get of an on-rushing stampede from the front of the drive. Most of the folks scatter to the “lee-side” of things like trees or large boulders seeking shelter from the herd, two of them try to ride it out racing alongside the herd.

As soon as it’s safe the group all begins trying to get their herd back under control. It takes hard work, skills in animal handling, and no small amount of brass-balls to pull off. But without anyone getting hurt, or their horses, everyone works together and succeeds in bringing their herd to a stop. And just in time as well, for now the front of the drive is thundering down on them. Rook has a clever idea and works with Wythe to erect a barrier of magical flame. Alruna and Aeran help spread the fire in a line towards the nearby hills, and Pieter closes the gap with a wall of thorns erected magically with his Green Thumbs. This basically blocks the stampede from proceeding on except towards the river. As they watch near 900 head of cattle come thundering down on them, and turn into the river where they bog up and eventually are forced to stop.

All that’s left is the tail end of the drive, being herded by Jeb and his boys. It’s exhausting work but after many hours of it everyone manages to stop the tail end of the stampede. The next day isn’t any easier as everyone works together to seek out any cattle that got away during the confusion. In the end it’s a bad day as Boss Simkins, Jeb, and everyone else, tally up the losses. 12 cattle were killed outright in the stampede, or needed to be from injuries incurred, and another 10 are gone missing.

But as with everything some good comes of it, the drive eats steak that night.

Pieter and Alruna are split from the party and cast adrift after the ship everyone is aboard is wrecked in a storm. As they drift they are visited by an, un-named, angel with white and salmon colored wings. The angel tells them to swim towards the sun, then to follow the pole-star from an oasis they will find. The angel also admonishes them for having freed Prince Balaam, but tells them forgiveness will be theirs from Erathis should they save “one town and one soul”, each. A vision is shown them of Boss Simkins at the start of his cattle-drive, he swears an oath that since none of the gods he knows will help him he’ll build a shrine to any god that will. They follow the angels instructions and come ashore, find the oasis, follow the pole-star into the desert, and pass through a shallowing to the Feywild they find hidden within a cave they come across.

Rook is pulled beneath the waves along with the stern of the ship after it breaks up. He and the wreckage are seized by a kraken and pulled further down, he then drowns.

Wythe, an eladrin wizard on the run from himself, has finally managed to find a nicely isolated spot to live out his life. He’s found two shallowings that lead to The World, and one day sees a pair of humans stumble out of one of them. After some conversation with them it’s apparent to him that Erathis has not let him go free, at least not yet. The three agree that divine providence is clearly at work, and take the other shallowing back to The World. (as it happens this second shallowing leads not to the world of the Earth Kingdom and the Caliph Al Raschaid but instead to the world of “Carta”, the world of the Crimson Port, the Maelgrimm Empire, and Port Liberty)

They emerge atop a pass between two peaks, below they can see a massive cattle-drive moving alongside a river, beyond the pass is a valley, they decide to approach the cattle-drive. Heading down they find an off-shoot path leading away from the river. At the crossroads is a dead horse, shot through with massive arrows, and a dying Pony Express rider. Nearby him is Rook’s body.

In darkness Rook wakes, he finds himself speaking again with Akasha, the Exarch of the Raven Queen. She talks with him for a bit about how his life has been led this time around, then tells him the Lady has decided to send him back for another try, again. As his vision grays, and he collapses like a corpse to the ground, she bends down and whispers in his ear, “As always, it must be a life for a life.”

Pieter fights desperately to save the life of the Pony Express rider. He’s terribly fevered from a massive compound fracture of his leg and the resulting infection. As he works the rider suddenly dies, just as Rook gasps in pain and sits straight up. Rook notices a small, black, raven’s feather fall from his chest as he sits up and quietly pockets it. Some introductions ensue.

As the group begins to question what’s happening here a group of five men from the cattle drive ride up. Initially things are quite hostile as it looks like the group has just murdered a Pony Express rider, but after seeing the actual situation is quite different the two work together to examine the scene.

It seems the rider was going as fast as he could for the “town” of Laredo, a small mining village not more than a few day’s journey away. Letters indicate that Laredo is in the grip of a fierce plague, Red Spotted Fever, and that they sent to a healer priest of Graahk for aid. The rider was returning with the components to finish a ritual, a ritual to produce a cure to the fever.

The leader of the riders, Jeb, is pleased when Pieter says he’d like to meet the leader of the drive since he was going to have to bring them in anyway and this way there won’t be a fight. At the tail end of the drive Jeb brings them to the chuck-wagon where they meet with Boss Simkins. Simkins is a tall, whipcord-thin, salt-and-pepper haired, grizzled man with a grip as hard as steel, though he doesn’t crush the hands of folks who will shake his hand. He’s a hard man, but on hearing Jeb’s tale, and Pieter’s desire to join him, says that “As I lost some boys recently” he’ll take Pieter and his crew on. He warns them the work is hard, and the trail long, and payday isn’t until they reach the railhead and sell the cattle, but that he’s a fair man and will pay them fairly for their work. Everyone agrees.

For their first job Simkins tells them to talk to “Cookie”, a half-elf named Aerun, who will set them up with horses and gear they’re lacking. Once they’re set they’re to take the medicine to Laredo and then return. He says to ride the horses until they die if that’s what it takes, “But save that town, folk what don’t stick together out here don’t survive and I’ll not have Laredo’s dead on my conscience. After that’s done ride on back, you should catch us up in a few days, I won’t drive my cattle more than 15 miles a day if I can help it. brief pause Well, what are you still doing here, get moving!”

Kitted out by Aerun the party rides for Laredo.

Rook takes a spare moment when no one is watching to examine the feather and determines that it’s very definitely divine magic, but that it seems to be waiting for something, like it has a purpose….

Along the trail to Laredo they are ambushed by a party of orc braves. Sporting war-paint and bows, to go with their obsidian axes, the braves aren’t quite good enough to surprise the party. Arrows fly before the two sides clash together. The lead brave, an orc blood-rager, nearly downs Wythe. But in the end the party defeats the war-party and moves on.

Later that same day they crest a ridge only to see a huge “indian” camp in the valley below them. It rests alongside a small lake. Several parties of braves charge the group to test their courage, but won’t attack while near their camp. Pieter’s group is stopped outside the camp by a line of braves and their chief. Chief Red Bear doesn’t speak common, and no one in the group speaks Giant, so for a time nothing happens. After a while a half-orc “slave” appears and translates Red Bear’s words for the group. The two sides agree to be friends, for now. But while the Chief will offer them the hospitality of the camp he is reticent to send them on towards Laredo as they seem unsuited for such travels, the group succeeds in convincing him otherwise.

The night passes uneventfully as the group succeeds in intimidating one group of challengers and being diplomatic with another group, and chooses correctly which group to do what to. Early the next morning they leave the indian camp, heading for Laredo.

The trail to Laredo rapidly becomes extremely difficult. There are navigational obstacles, it’s exhausting, and it nearly lames one of the horses though Pieter is able to save it’s leg by walking it the last bit of the trip.

Laredo proves to be an, apparently, empty walled village of 30 or 40 buildings. The gate is closed. Some hollering produces a badly weakened young man named Jarit who warns them to “go away, there’s Red Spotted Fever here, we’re all as good as dead since no medicine has come yet”. The group convinces him to let them in anyway after explaining their mission to him.

Jarit takes them to the house of Leria, the local healer. Leria is infected and is delirious with fever, and is the only source of knowledge about how to transform the herbs and powders from Graahk into the medicine needed to fight the fever. Pieter cools her down with his healing knowledge, and the rest manage to decipher her rantings enough to realize that the process for the medicine can be found in her house. They toss the place in an intense search until they find letters and a book that help them figure out the right ritual.

After finishing the medicine, which is very volatile, they begin curing the villagers. Alas about a quarter of the villagers have suffered permanent brain and nerve damage, leaving them practically vegetative, and death from Red Spotted Fever is brutally nasty. It burns out your nerves in a remarkably painful way and then kills you by turning your lungs into bloody clots that you cough up until you die.

Rook acts on a hunch and puts the Feather of the Raven Queen upon a dying young woman’s forehead. In his head he hears an old woman’s voice whisper, “It must be wakened with a death.” He draws his dagger and gives the woman mercy, plunging it into her heart in a swift blow. As she dies the feather bursts into a black cloud of dust-like motes, which rapidly stream out of the house and across the town. People begin to notice that everyone who can’t be cured is now dead, even folks who shouldn’t be dead yet seem to have died peacefully.

Jarit and the group, and some other survivors begin the hard task of cremating the dead of Laredo. When that’s done everyone rests for the night. The next day Pieter exchanges his horse for a fresh one, with Jarit’s promise that he’ll see to it that the horse is treated well until it’s healed enough to ride again.

The return trip from Laredo is much easier. Chief Red Bear’s tribe seems to have moved on, they’re no longer camped at the lake, and after that it’s a quick day’s ride back to the pass where they first appeared. Boss Simkin’s drive has moved onwards while they traveled though, and it takes another two days for them to catch it up. Simkins is pleased with their efforts, and happy that at least some of Laredo survived.

But he remains quite the cynic, and is clearly still hostile to most gods. There must be something going on we don’t yet understand Pieter thinks.

Night falls and the cowboys bed down, making ready for another hard day the following morning.

Cast ashore by a shipwreck onto the Bone Coast Sioned and Sim struggle to make their way out of the desert and back to Aqaba. Sioned has instructions from Estevan to go there in disguise (so the Caliph won’t know she’s alive) and while there check in on his old friend Asim al Awad bin Tariq.

Disguised as beggars they enter Aqaba, and locate Asim, he involves them in some shady deals which help keep the poor of Aqaba housed, fed, and clothed. While out begging one day Sioned is recognized by an agent of Jafar, the now-out-of-favor-and-exiled Vizier. They fight off the agents.

Leaving Aqaba, to avoid Jafar’s attention, they pursue the rumors of a magical body that washed up in the delta of the River Laq. It turns out to be the corpse of Rook. Rook’s body is indeed magically protected and does not decompose, it is being tended by an ancient crone named Erzulie, also a priestess of the Raven Queen. She promises to give them word if anything changes, and they return to Aqaba this time disguised as rich pilgrims.

Investigation leads to the discovery of a safe-house Jafar’s agents are running. Jafar seems to be kidnapping the poor of Aqaba for (doubtless nefarious) purposes.

Sioned and Sim decide to deal with it themselves. They scout out the house and invade it late one night, within they defeat Jafar’s chief apprentice, a twin brother to the hydromancer they’d fought in the past, and a necromancer.

Further investigation leads to a room deep beneath the sewers of Aqaba where Jafar himself is at work on a magic ritual. The two assault him, but fail to capture him as he flees the sewers.

Some weeks pass as they wait for the periodic portal in the crypts of Aqaba to open a gate to the Sargasso Graveyard. Erzulie shows up just a few days before the appointed time, Rook’s body in tow. She says she was given a dream from her Lady that his body should be returned to the Sargasso Graveyard. That night Asim dies of old age. At the death-rites Erzulie performs for Asim the beggars of Aqaba all dice off for what little goods he has left behind, Sioned wins his set of lucky dice.

A few days later Sioned and Sim take the body of Rook through the portal to the Sargasso Graveyard.

Shazhara thanks Di’Ahna for telling her the tales of Sioned that she has re-told to the Sultan, and for her instruction in dancing. Di’Ahna thanks her for her hospitality, but says she must return now to Tradegate to attend to her family’s business.

Pieter waits aboard ship while his friends go ashore, he being a living man and thus unable to safely go ashore on the Isle of the Worlds. After most of a day passes he decides to test the curse, and sets out with the Caliph’s Chief Eunuch towards the castle. A djinni woman of fantastic beauty, dressed in the silks of a non-combatant, appears in a burst of smoke as they approach the shore. Pieter talks to her, as the Chief Eunuch flees toward the ship. She tells him his friends are nearly ready to enter the cave where her husband Prince Balaam waits, he says he will not put foot upon the shore if he can join them when they are ready.

Sioned and the rest leave the castle to return to the ship and see Pieter and Ameena, the scholar of the djinni sisters, talking at the quay. When they approach, and re-unite with Pieter on the quay, she exerts powerful magic and raises a small stone island from the middle of the bay. At it’s edge, near the quay, is a tunnel leading inwards. The group leaps from quay to island, never setting foot on the Isle of the Worlds. (a good thing for Pieter)

The tunnel leads into the depths of the stone island ending in a large, seemingly empty, cavern. The group manages to detect an unexplained air-flow, which leads to a magically hidden exit high up the back wall of the cavern. Using the exit the group finds themselves moving down a spiraling passage, as if it was outside a large funnel, as they move they are aware the slope is increasing and that they are passing through multiple planes though no individual boundary can be discerned. At the bottom they find a hole opening into the roof of a large cavern.

Dropping a series of knotted-together ropes down the hole the group climbs down into the Cavern of Gold and Silver. All about them lie piles of gold and silver coins, various golden pieces of sculpture, gold plates, etc., etc., etc. The Cavern of Gold and Silver has three exits, the group chooses an outer exit. That leads to the Cavern of Silks, a huge cave piled high with rare silks, carpets, clothes, etc., etc., etc. From this cavern there are also three exits, this time the party passes up the scents of the remaining outside passage leading to the Cavern of Spices and chooses the central passage instead.

At the end of the central passage lies a massive iron door with heavy bronze fittings. Listening at the door reveals the faint sounds of music beyond. Opening the door the group enters into a luxuriously appointed room with silk hangings and pillows strewn upon the carpet-covered floor. Lounging upon some of the pillows, playing an odd (and unknown to Sioned) wind-instrument from the deepest past, is an old and withered man.

The party introduces themselves, and learns he is Prince Balaam, once the greatest of the djinn generals in the Dawn War. Since his side lost, due to the God’s treachery according to him, he has been imprisoned here away from the winds that feed him, with only the slightest breezes from mortals entering the cave he has been starved down to his present form. He too tries to dissuade the group from attempting to take the Splinter of Bone, but in the end is convinced to allow them to try.

He uses magic to hang a silver rope from mid-air and open a hole into the depths of the earth, which the rope descends into. The group climbs down the rope into a small apparently natural cavern. Within are three dogs with eyes the size of eggs, the party defeats the normal-sized dogs with ease. The sole exit from the room is a natural appearing tunnel snaking to a second cave. Within that cave are three huge dogs with eyes the size of saucers, these three are a much tougher fight though the party triumphs in the end.

At the back of the cavern lies another massive iron door bound in bronze. The party takes out the three magic sesame cakes from Zahura and takes up battle formation as they open the door. Beyond is a huge room and within are three massive dogs with eyes the size of wagon wheels. They move faster than anyone in the party and each savage, or fling, a party member as soon as the door is opened. Thinking quickly Alruna, and Sioned each fling a cake at one of the hounds, the third cake is mis-aimed and lands on the floor. Fortunately the dogs go before any of the party for the scent of the sesame-cake fills the air almost instantly and everyone knows that if they can they will go try to eat the magical treat, but alas for the party the third great hound devours the cake. The party takes a short rest as the dogs slumber.

Magical wards standing between the party and the only other exit from the room take some more time. But combining religious and arcane knowledge the party manages to work out a ritual that will, for a time, disable them.

Beyond the wards lies a room filled with the most spectacular magic items any of the group has ever seen. Each member of the party save Alruna nearly loses themselves as greed for one or another item almost overcomes them. Sim does NOT grab for the Staff of the Magi, Rook passes on a feather from the Raven Queen herself, Sioned and Pieter each also nearly succumb to tempation when Alruna speaks up saying she has found the cedar box they are searching for.

Inside the cedar box lies a small splinter of what looks like bone. However the box becomes heavier and heavier each step someone takes away from it’s original position at the back of the room. In a few steps it’s too heavy to be borne, a few more and not even ropes can drag it any further, and as soon as it’s on the floor and not being held it slides back to it’s original spot.

Experimentation shows that if Alruna tries to reach for the Bone Splinter her fingers begin to feel like they are burning as they get close to it. Sim discovers that the splinter devours his magic when he tries to pick it up with a mage hand, he chooses to lose his access to the spell Mage Hand for a day rather than spend another (mostly gone) healing surge to keep it.

In the end Sioned takes a leap of faith and just picks it up and walks out.

As they return to Prince Balaam everyone can feel the earth beginning to shudder and quake as huge magical power is being released. Entering Prince Balaam’s chamber they can see that he is already changing, before their eyes he “youthens” and grows in size. As he becomes larger and larger the shaking intensifies until there is a massive explosion and the entire prison is blown outwards and upwards like a volcanic explosion. Prince Balaam shields the party, ensuring they land safely on the quay near their ship.

The entire fleet watches as the small island in the bay blows up. They watch as a rain of gold and riches fall down upon the island and the ocean. Everyone sees as Prince Balaam grows out of the massive crater and, raising his thickly muscled arms to the heavens, declares “I am free! At Last I Am FREE!! Let the Heavens themselves beware Prince Balaam and his Five Faithful Wives.”

With a deafening clap of thunder and a great rush of wind Prince Balaam, the castle, and his Five Faithful Wives vanish from The World.

(those seeking them may do so in Chaos you suspect)

And as the fleet gathers up a great treasure of gold and luxuries from the island’s sands the tale ends.

The tale opens as Shahzara dances with her sisters and several other ladies, the mysterious dark-haired human woman sits in the corner. She answers Shahzara’s question as to the truth of the stories she is telling with, “I can attest to some personally, the others I have heard as true, but I must say she’s not as young as you’ve led the Sultan to believe, nor is she “pretty” as he’d see it.” Shahzara replies that she knows her audience, and that a little embellishment to keep his interest isn’t unfair given the circumstances.

The Sultan then bursts into the room in a rage, he roars about a noble-woman’s betrayal of her house and Him and how he must now destroy one of the noble Efreeti Houses of the City of Brass weakening his entire Realm. He tells Shahzara that as the perfidy of women is proven she can go to the headsman’s axe now, and damn her tales of Sioned and the Merchant’s Son. Shahzara prostrates herself and says she will of course obey, she says that she only regrets that she cannot now bear the Sultan his third son, that she is pregnant with even now. The Sultan’s mood changes in a moment from rage to celebration. When the room settles, and most of the women depart, Shahzara says that not all women are so faithless, and she tells the Sultan to remember the tale of Prince Balaam and his Five Wives.

“Yes, it is true,” the Sultan admits, “They kept faith for thousands of years. Since the times of the Dawn War they have waited faithfully for him.” The Sultan pauses, “But has the Prince not escaped? Was he not just recently freed, and his wives’s faithfulness rewarded?” Shahzara dips her eyes from his gaze and replies, “Does my Lord wish to tell the tale, or does he wish to hear it?” With that she launches into her story . . .

After restoring the honor of Hakim’s family, and rewarding them with vast riches in recompense for his Vizier’s actions the Caliph decided to reward Sioned for her part in revealing the Vizier’s plans. Along with his Chief Eunuch he dispatched her, and her companions, to the Isle of the Worlds in the company of a Royal Fleet. There the Chief Eunuch was to replenish the Caliph’s treasury from his ancestor’s hoard, and Sioned was to be rewarded with “Gold and Jewels equal in weight to my Chief Eunuch,” in the words of the Caliph Al Raschaid. (the Chief Eunuch is a “man” most notable for his vast and profound mass) But the Caliph warned Sioned, “Let no true man set foot upon the Isle of the Worlds, for it is accursed and no living man may land there but he dies.” He lastly recommends her to Ayla, the Mistress of the Isle, who will grant them access to the treasure.

Approaching the Isle the group decides that Pieter must stay aboard, rather than landing. It is also decided that Rook shall risk a landing, as he is dead, and Sim will go ashore provided he changes into a female form. As the ships exit the straight and approach the Isle they enter an otherworldly (in it’s most literal sense) fog. Eventually the fog clears and before them is revealed a low rocky island with a low hill at it’s center, there is a magnificent stone castle near a bay, and a massive stone quay juts forth into the bay. As the ships enter the bay the weather begins to turn foul. Approaching the quay is difficult as winds whip up, driving the ships away, and a funnel cloud descends towards the castle from the sky. As Rook and Sioned leap to the quay to tie up the ship the winds scream down upon them blowing sand and debris before it, the funnel cloud comes with it, and as everyone’s vision clears when the winds begin to die they see a giant woman before them.

Mirya is a huge Djinni, she is dressed as an Amazon in armor and gear for war, she is armed with a massive bow. In a booming voice she demands to know who seeks their death by daring to approach the Isle of the Winds. At Sioned’s reply that they serve the Caliph she screams in rage and attacks. With blurring hands she draws and fires a slew of arrows in a heartbeat, all but one are near perfectly aimed. Sim is grazed by an arrow-head as it passes by his neck to feather the mast behind him. Everyone else on the ship and quay finds an arrow within inches of themselves. Rook reveals that Mirya has left, and is likely atop the castle walls watching them, Sioned and Alruna calm the terrified crew, then Alruna and Sim scout the shore.

Climbing up a path to the castle they are stopped at the gates by a Djinni woman in fine, though sturdy, garb. She bears a great sword upon her back, and says she is Lakiyaa, the Gatekeeper. She says that she will admit the group to see her sister Ayla, the Mistress of the Isle, but that she will be greatly vexed at the interruption. Ayla resents the Caliph’s impositions, so if Sioned seeks her goodwill she should think of something to help calm her feelings. Lakiyaa tells them, when asked, that if Sioned helps with some wreckage that has washed up on the north shore of the island Ayla would surely be more happy with her. Lakiyaa, after being pressed on it, will grant that the “wreckage” in this case was a vessel from the Far Realms that storms forced onto the rocks of the Isle’s coasts, she knows there are survivors, but if the four can slay them the situation will resolve itself. Sioned agrees.

On the North shore of the Isle the group sees a rocky beach. Upon it lies the wreckage of a vast nautiloid “ship”, the vessel was clearly a living creature. Working on the wreckage, trying to heal it, are a grell and a pair of gricks under it’s command. The group watches for a bit, then crests the dunes leading down to the beach and attacks. The grell is nasty, grabbing and biting Alruna, Sim, and Sioned, and the gricks are no easy prey either. But in the end the three abominations can’t stand against the four heroes.

Returning to the castle they find the gates are now open. Entering, the four pass through the courtyard and into a vast throne-room. Not upon the throne, but upon pillows at it’s feet, lounges a magnificently beautiful woman. The Djinni is dressed in flowing silks and veils, with jewels dripping from her, an exquisite perfume fills the air around as invisible servants fan her.

Ayla and Sioned speak for a bit. Ayla is grateful for their help and tells the tale of her husband the great Djinni general, Prince Balaam, and her sisters to them all revealing how he was imprisoned by the gods during the Dawn War, and how his wives, the Five Sisters, were also imprisoned in objects in the castle until he was released, only one at a time able to act. Ayla tells of how much she misses her husband, and her sisters. She says that until her husband is freed they can never be free themselves.

“She is beautiful,” the Sultan says. “I courted her once, but not even my charms could win a kind glance from her, much less a kiss. Her four sisters likewise. Each forever faithful to their lost husband.” Shahzara quietly responds, “Indeed their lot was cruel and their heartache great.” She brightens, “But this day was their salvation, for unknown to them Sioned had orders from her Master to steal the Bone Splinter, thus setting Prince Balaam free.”

Sioned expresses sympathy and, claiming to be moved, says she and her companions will endeavor to free Balaam if only Ayla will tell them how. Ayla says that if they can but take a magic item called the Bone Splinter from Prince Balaam’s care he will be freed, but that the task is impossible. The Splinter is warded by three sets of guards; wolves with eyes the size of eggs, wolves with eyes the size of saucers, and wolves with eyes the size of wagon wheels. Even if Sioned could pass the guards there are magic wards the gods and their servants have put in place to guard the Splinter. Lastly the Splinter itself is lethally powerful, it has slain all who attempt to take it, lying in wait ”. . . until The Three shall need it again, when it is fated to return to them.”

Sioned presses that she will attempt it, and gets the rest of the party to help convince Ayla to let them try. Ayla finally relents and says that she will do what she can. She can not help them in the cave itself, and Prince Balaam is forbidden from helping them as well, but her sister Zahura may be able to help them with the guards. She can make a sesame cake so fine that after eating it any creature will nap for a time, and no creature can refuse them either, as their scent is irresistable.

Departing the throne room the three women, and the dead man, approach the castle’s kitchens. Within the vast, cavernous, kitchen everything seems in motion. Beasts on spits turn without help, utensils cook on their own, even the bread kneads itself. After a moment of standing and watching the group sees the Fourth Sister enter, Zahura is shorter than the other sisters, but heavier, she sports some seriously “dangerous curves.” Zahura dresses practically, for the kitchen.

Zahura says that she wishes Sioned would not choose to die by attempting to steal the Splinter, for she has no more of the sesame seeds she needs to make the cakes. Though she does not doubt the four’s courage, she does doubt they can defeat the largest of the wolves that guard the splinter. On being asked if more sesame could be acquired she says it can not, “Such seeds of power have not grown since the Dawn Times, and the last of my stores were stolen by the ants which have come to the castle.”

Thinking, correctly, that perhaps the ants would be large enough to leave holes the group could travel they offer to attempt to retrieve some of Zahura’s sesame seeds from the ant-nest. Descending into the hive the group fights waves of workers as they advance. Eventually they enter the heart of the nest, and fight more waves of workers, this time supplemented by warriors and soldiers. Soon enough the Queen herself advances into the fray.

“The fight turned nasty, both Rook and Sim used their greatest magical spells, and Alruna nearly gave her life protecting them as best she could,” Shahzara relates to the Sultan. “Everyone was bloodied, and for a time the outcome of the battle was in doubt. But in the end the Queen fell.” The Sultan looks up from his wine as dawn breaks, “Did they find the sesame seed then? And what of the reinforcements they heard climbing down the nest’s tunnels towards them?”

Shahzara smiles, a light of victory in her eyes for she knows she has won yet another day, “Oh most Magnificent One, Lord of the Lambent Fires, Master of the Brazen Peoples, it is nearly dawn, and your tasks are almost upon you. And so I fear that the tale’s end must wait for another day. Shall I send for the headsman now my Lord,” she taunts, knowing the inevitable answer.

“No oh wife. Not today. Perhaps I will have you executed tomorrow, but I think we can both await the end of This Tale,” the Sultan says and chuckles as he recognizes his now-inevitable defeat.

In the City of Brass evening descends over all. Within his magnificent palace the Sultan stomps around one of his magnificent rooms, the day’s events having disturbed him. Before him the beautiful Shahzara, her sister Dumzarad, and several handmaids dance. With a bellow of rage he scatters most of the women, only Shahzara showing the courage to stand before him. “This day has been the ruination of my many viziers’ plans wife. Amuse me, and abate my just wrath, or face the Headsman’s axe here and now,” he demands.

“Oh great master, Lord of the Fire Nation, Potentate of the Sacred Flames, I will of course obey your will and seek the Headsman myself, but you will never know how Sioned managed to finally speak to the Caliph Al Raschaid and expose the evil of his Vizier Ja’far,” countered Shahzara, bowing gracefully to her husband and master. “Very well,” the Sultan replied, settling upon a couch to drink wine and eat fine figs while she spoke .. . .

“So it was that after escaping the castle of Malec Keth with the scrolls of Alhazared that Sioned and her men set forth upon the Desert of Sighs. Little did they suspect how lifeless, or how wide, the desert was. For days they traveled over sand, scrub, rock, and dunes seemingly without end. In the end they found themselves approaching the oasis of Al A’Qa, near to the city of Aqaba. As they approached they beheld a rare sight, a magnificently appointed riding horse, and nearby a finely dressed young man sitting, sobbing, at the base of the date palms that ringed the pool of the oasis. .. .

Introducing themselves the five companions met Haqim, son of one of the greatest merchant families in the Caliphate. Haqim warned Sioned that she and her men should leave immediately, for he was a doomed man and he did not wish to bring his doom upon them. Upon some friendly prodding he began to embark upon the voyage of telling his tale, only to be interrupted by the attack of a group of ghuls on the oasis.

The pack of ghuls descended upon the six travelers, blocking them from the eastern desert entirely. Their leader, a powerful witch, hexed many of the warriors and turned two of them (Sim and Sioned) into small desert snakes while the rest fought her foul minions. In the end Haqim was as successful in defeating his opponent as the party proved in defeating the rest. Settling down to a quick rest, Haqim began again to tell his tale . . . .

“I was once the most fortunate of men, a beloved son of a powerful House with signs that I should rise even farther in the service of the Caliph. The signs were so great that the Caliph’s most favored Vizier Ja’Far went so far as to offer his own niece to be my bride. The wedding was magnificent, but not all was at it seemed.”

Haqim then related how he’d discovered his wife was a powerful ghul with sorcerous powers that she used to transform him into a dog. She then stole a great deal of his family’s gold and cast him into the street, telling the city he had left with a great treasure to seek wealth and trade in a foreign land, ruining his reputation and preventing him from returning even if he should regain his form. Through the will of the gods, and the magic of a young girl in training with a good sorceress, he was restored to his form. But though he was given the magic to turn the tables on his wife he was powerless to do so until her own source of power was found and destroyed. Haqim tried to find that source, but discovered it was concealed in a house of ghuls near the city’s walls. And though he tried to sneak in he was discovered and chased from the house. Only through great skill and cleverness had he managed to out-run them this far. Even now he knew he was doomed, for if they did not slay him it was possible he could yet obtain the proof of his wife’s nature and inform the Caliph.

“And so it is that I, once most favored of all merchant’s sons in the Caliphate, am now an outcast and doomed to certain death,” concluded the dejected young man.

Knowing that without access to the Caliph there was no way Sioned could convince him of the Vizier Ja’Far’s treacherous necromancies Sioned then struck a bargain with the merchant’s son. She and her forces would deal with the house of ghuls, and aid Haqim in dealing with his wife. In return Haqim agreed that when he brought his case before the Caliph he would bring Sioned with him and speak on her behalf to the Caliph, as the first son of a powerful House he was sure the Caliph would hear him out faithfully.

Steering across the desert wastes by the stars Pieter proceeded to lead the group to a river valley. Below them a slow river lay beyond a great city. And before the city an ancient building lay near the desert’s edge, and the city’s graveyard, the House of Ghuls was found.

Sneaking up to the house the group prepared for battle with prayers to the Gods and spells. Flinging open the door they were initially stopped by a charge of ghuls. Behind the ghuls came cultists of Demogorgon with long-spears, and in the far back a foul priest of the demon lord lurked. Though the priest neatly caught Rook with his tentacles, Rook flung them off soon enough to advance after Pieter’s divine power flung the ghuls backwards. Sim and Rook soon combined forces and trapped and burned many of the ghuls and the cultists. Seeing the inevitable the priest snuck out a side door and escaped from the house to warn Haqim’s wife.

Seeking throughout the house the five found neither gold nor magic. But they did discover a small jar of foul, necromantic, odure that held the soul and power of Haqim’s wife in it. With that in hand the plan could now proceed.

Knowing the wife would now be watching for her husband via mystical methods Sim worked several spells to shield Haqim. Rook stole up to the back door to Haqim’s house and picked the lock, allowing the six adventurers entry. Alruna explained what had really happened to the servants, who showed their true loyalty to the merchant’s son by helping conceal Haqim and his friends until the wife returned. Sioned, checked over everyone’s hiding places to confirm the plan was solid, then hid herself behind a tapestry concealing an alcove.

“And so it was,” Shahzara spoke, “that when the wife came home that morning to her home she was caught unawares by the merchant’s son and Sioned and her companions. She was so surprised that Haqim managed to leap to his feet and begin speaking the magic words before she even saw him. Putting his hand to the cup of water he . . .” “Sister,” broke in Dumzarad, “Look, the sky is lightening again. Dawn is nearly here.” Shielding a yawn with her hand she continued, “We must not keep the Sultan any longer, there is business he must attend this day, important affairs for the City of Brass.”

Bowing low Shahzara turned to address the Sultan. “Oh Master, Husband, Lord of the Fire of Creation, I would not keep you from your urgent business. Shall I go to find the Headsman myself, or should you prefer to call him yourself?”

Waving a meaty hand the Sultan replied, “No, no. You have won yourself another day oh Cunning Wife. I fear I prefer the end of the tale to your execution this day. Come to me again this night, and we shall discuss the matter once more.”

And so, as the Sultan departs for a new day in the City of Brass, this tale too must end . .. for a time.

Pieter wakes in the middle of the night to the sounds of the Vistani putting horses to wagons and loading their gear up in preparation to depart the village of Zhi Tao. He looks into the hall at the sound of a soft knock on a nearby door to see Sioned talking with two Vistani.

Basho, the chief Luko’s son, and a Vistani young woman warn Sioned that the Vistani are departing. The girl is Mai Li, and is eloping with Basho. Both emphasize to Sioned that the village will surely be up in arms about the marriage. Mai Li gives Sioned what she says is a bride-price from her father, who can’t officially “approve” of the couple but wishes them well, the “dowry” is five bolts of pure Imperial Gold dyed silk. Mai Li tells them of an ancient hermit in the jungle near Li Jin’ shrine named Shakaji who might be the only man with enough authority and knowledge of the past to unite the two villages Zhi Tao and Zhang Yi. Then Basho looks a bit abashed and says that his father is taking a bit more from Zhi Tao than just Mai Li, the Vistani are stealing most of the raw, undyed, silk from the village warehouse. The two are halfway down the hall and departing fast by the time the last of the tale comes out.

Sioned and Pieter get everyone up and the group of people sneak out of the village rather than face their wrath, since the Vistani had paid Sioned to get them in the village as her “guards”. They head for Li Jin’s shrine hoping to find the hermit Shakaji. Going further up the mountain they encounter him sitting and meditating in the morning sun.

Shakaji is an ancient, wizened, elf. His leathery skin is quite burnished by the sun. He’s also a little rude, and doesn’t like being bothered by pestering youth while at his meditations….. After being convinced to help he reveals that he is the father of Li Jin’s first wife, an elven maid from whom the Zhi are descended. He tells how Li Jin and his two wives (the second being a wild orc warrior-maid) came to this land in times past. In fact without the aid of both of Li Jin’s sons neither village could have been founded for only together could they emplace the holy orb.

The two villages grew apart over time and eventually forgot their ancestor Li Jin and thus also forgot their relationship to each other. After some convincing that arcane and divine signs pointed towards this being a good time to help his old son-in-law’s family re-unite he agrees to try to solve things.

Returning to the Shrine everyone discovers it has been overrun by Imperial troops, and Zhangs. It seems there was a back-route to the shrine from Zhang Yi, and that the Zhang’s summoned the troops when they discovered the mass-grave there. The Zhang’s and the group cleanse and reconsecrate the shrine before the troops and Zhangs head to Zhi Tao with Shakaji. The group doesn’t want to meet the Imperial troops after they’ve talked to the Zhi so they arrange to wait for Shakaji at his camp in the jungle.

Shakaji eventually returns and tells the group that since the Zhi no longer have the mass of raw silk to make bulk trades with they’ve asked the Zhang to restart trade in the yellow dye to make Imperial Gold with. Only that way can they do well this year. Further he believes that he can in time more fully re-unite Li Jin’s family, thus fulfilling the spirit’s wishes. Making for the Brazen Bazaar before it leaves the Earth Kingdom the group passes Li Jin’s shrine one last time, as they do so the spirit of Li Jin appears and blesses them for their aid in rebuilding his family and restoring his shrine. Channeling power from the Heavens he strengthens and empowers the enchantments on both Sioned’s sword and Sim’s magic orb.

And with the sale of the five silk bolts at the Brazen Bazaar the tale of the two villages on the road to Ba Sing Se is complete.

In the City of Brass the Grand Sultan of the Efreet, the Lord of Flame, the Potentate Incandescent himself reclines in one of his bed rooms. He bickers with one of his women, a stunningly beautiful efreet named Shahzara over whether or not he should kill her for not finishing her most recent tale, “The Merchant Girl and the Prison of Malec Keth”. Shahzara says that she will of course obey his will, but that he will never learn what happened when the Caliph’s guards burst into the harem to discover her and her spy Sim and spiritual advisor Pieter arming themselves for battle .. .. . the Sultan rages a bit for effect, but in the end concedes that he’d like to hear that tale more than follow his plan to execute her as a faithless woman.

Shahzara tells of how the Caliph’s evil Vizier had decieved the Caliph into evil ways and how Sioned set two of her men to raising bandits in the hills while she and Pieter went to warn to the Caliph. Alas the Vizier got wind of this and imprisoned Pieter and threw Sioned into the Caliph’s prison. Sending for her “spiritual advisor” she was joined in the harem by Sim, who had disguised himself as one of the Caliph’s guards. The three had just finished arming themselves when a pair of demons, summoned by the Vizier, and in disguise as the Caliph’s guards, burst in and assaulted them.

After telling of the fight Shahzara allayed the Sultan’s questions about why the demons did not just call for more guards, revealing that Sioned and her spies were actually in the castle searching for some ancient scrolls the Vizier was seeking for a foul necromantic ritual and that revealing his forces in the castle/prison would have alerted the Caliph to his intent. So it was that Sioned and her pair of men began to search the castle of Malec Keth for the library, where they hoped to find the scrolls. They were successful in evading the Caliph’s guards, but without Pieter beseeching the help of a holy priest in the castle’s temple would never have found it without alerting more guards.

Led into the library via a secret passage from the temple the trio begins to search for the scrolls the Vizier needed. Alas for them that before they could find, and safeguard, the scrolls they met the Vizier’s apprentice and his guards, a pair of cultists devoted to Demogorgon. A fight ensues during which the apprentice, a genasi hydromancer, nearly kills Pieter several times by drowning him. Fortunately the cultists can’t save their master, and while Pieter continues choking for a time after the apprentice is slain he eventually coughs all the water out of his lungs after the fight is over.

Before he dies the apprentice taunts Pieter saying, “You will never succeed, we have found the Scrolls of Alhazared, and they are even now departing the prison for my master’s hand.” He then dies, blood bubbling out of his mouth as he expires.

Knowing their isn’t a moment to lose the trio race for the front gates of the castle. They evade one group of guards, and race (quick as the wind) past another. In the end they are successful in escaping the castle and, leaping down a switchback confront and capture the carriage, capturing Alhazared’s scroll.

“But what good is the scroll to them, woman?, bellows the Sultan, the Tempering and Eternal Flame of Truth, the Most Puissant of Hunters, Master of all Efreet. With a bow and a smile Shahzara points out the window to the first traces of daylight beginning to creep over the brazen and smoking buildings that comprise the City of Brass. “Oh great master, it is nearly morning, would you not sleep before your business tomorrow? Let me watch over you as you rest, there is time for the tale to finish tomorrow evening. Surely you can postpone my execution one more day, just long enough to hear the tale’s end.”

Yawning mightily the Sultan somewhat groggily agrees. And laying his head down in the lady’s lap decides to rest for another of the Thousand and One Nights. Shahzara smiles gently as he sleeps and places a hand on her belly as she is lost deep in thought, knowing she has bought another day’s life for herself and her unborn son.

As the sun rises our five heroes walk upslope and away from the Palace of the Lunar Emperor. Behind them it, and it’s road, fade away like mist in the dawning light, leaving only dense forest. Cresting the edge of the valley the party descends down into an inhabited valley. They can see a road winding away to their right and left, some distance down the road they can see two villages though details are missing in the morning haze.

Approaching the road they and a company of bandits in wait alongside the road notice each other simultaneously. Calling out that they have no time to waste the bandits attack. A mixed-race unit of army deserters four draw bows and four advance on the party. Though it takes a few rounds to dispatch the warriors, and the archers do pretty heavy damage, in the end the bandit leaders Li Po and Li Zhu are captured as a caravan of wagons begins to approach.

As the fight ends a unit of Imperial army troops charge out of the wagons towards the fight. Sioned is thanked for her help in apprehending the notorious “Li brothers” and told to report to the army camp near Zhan Yi if she wishes to collect her reward. The soldiers then march off with the prisoners and the personal gear of the bandits. The caravan proves to be the 5 Vistani wagons the party has seen near Zhuge Liang.

The leader, a tiefling by the name of Luko, chats up the group a bit as they seek information about the villages in the valley and he seeks information about them. He then makes them an offer. He says that Baba Tasha is someone he knows and that she owes him some small favors, Luko claims that he can’t cancel the life-debt Pieter owes her but that if the party could help him and his out he could include Sioned’s debt in their reward for helping him.

Some hard bargaining takes place. In the end Sioned agrees to take on the caravan as hers, “officially”, and claim six of the Vistani men as her guards. This will gain them the access to the village of Zhi Tao that they need. He warns Sioned that he intends mischief, and in recompense offers her three things since that mischief will resound upon her and hers almost inevitably. Firstly he gives a magic sword to the group, which Alruna gets. Second he agrees to cancel Sioned’s debt to Baba Tasha in return for the favor she’s doing him. Lastly he offers a bag of gold (500 pieces in fact) for their help, Luko later offers to Pieter that if the group needs to depart the Earth Kingdom he’d take the bag of gold back and in return give them passage as part of his caravan with the Brazen Bazaar to the City of Brass. Sioned accepts the terms.

Pulling the caravan into the village of Zhi Tao the group and the Vistani break it down in the courtyard of an inn where they take rooms. Sioned, Pieter, and Alruna split off to ask questions around the town while Rook and Sim head down to the river where a number of Zhi’s seem to be practicing a very ornate and formal ritual. The three in town speak to several weavers and determine that the Imperial Gold silk is not being produced due to two factors, firstly a lack of the Treasure-Bird’s-Belly dye they need to make it, and secondly because a new buyer has arrived that is offering premium pricing for the more regular colors of silk cloth. (which are easier to produce)

Down by the river the revenant and the changeling, in the form of a human, take part in what turns out to be a harvest ritual thanking their ancestors and the Heavens for the good weather for the silkworms this year. It’s apparent the Zhi care deeply about the proper forms of worship and even more deeply about their ancestors. Following the ritual they talk with the village leader, an elderly man named Zhi Gong Tsu who is dressed impeccably, and is also impeccably coifed.

Gong Tsu eventually talks with the full party and reveals some information about their buyer, Lu Soon. Lu Soon soon turns out to be quite mysterious, he seems to be from a never-before-encountered race. Further, he’s offering prices higher than he really should be, and is thus causing the Zhi’s to focus more on their regular colors. Gong Tsu says that the only problem is that he’s having trouble getting the dyes needed to produce even those, accusing some “Filthy Zhangs” of being behind the problem. Gong Tsu offers that if the party could obtain more of the normal dyes they need from the Zhangs he will have the village witch enchant Sioned’s sword to greater power.

The next morning Sioned hires the village witch to cast a Phantom Steeds for her and the group. Aided by magically-fast travel they reach the village of Zhang Yi by late-morning. They pass through the village, asking minimal questions, and report to the army post. A young Imperial Army captain speaks with them. He thanks them for their help and, after determining that he has no reason to believe they were involved with the bandits, asks if (as barbarians) they can read some letter he seized from the Li brothers. The letters are in a language and script no one has ever encountered before. Some magical rituals by Sim reveal that they were written by a blue-skinned humanoid (Lu Soon), were delivered and read by Li Po in the bandit camp near an ancient shrine, and were communications used to coordinate bandit attacks up and down the Road to Ba Sing Se. The attacks seem focussed on caravans of locally produced goods.

In Zhang Yi the group speaks with Zhang Tai Ling. Tai Ling is a vibrantly alive woman, though she appears messy and in some disarray. She has little time to speak with the group saying that the village is suffering from very bad luck. They are being cheated by the “treacherous Zhi’s” of the gold for their next shipment of dyes, and the Zhi have even imprisoned her brother-in-law Pao Pao who went to ask for the payment. She says this is typical of the untrustworthy Zhi. She relates a tale of how, when her village was founded, her ancestor Zhang Jin was falsely accused by the Zhi and imprisoned for ten years before he escaped as an example of Zhi untrustworthiness.

Thankfully for her village, Tai Ling claims, a mysterious buyer has turned up that might be of help. He has offered to buy all the dyes her village can produce freeing them from the need to sell to the Zhi. The downside (for the PTC) is that he’s returning in a month and her village needs to work very hard to produce the dyes for him, so she has no time to restart production of “that yellow dye the Zhi’s like best”. The buyer’s description, unsurprisingly, matches Lu Soon’s appearance. She will agree that if the party can free her brother-in-law she’ll reconsider, and will even make sure some of the yellow dye gets made, even if it gets sold to “those effete Zhi”. Tai Ling doesn’t care much for culture, or ancestors, or even neatness and cleanliness, but it’s apparent that she and all the Zhangs care VERY deeply about family and will go to great lengths with that loyalty.

Returning to Zhi Tao the group learns that the Zhi have imprisoned Zhang Pao Pao for cheating them of goods. They claim he took their gold payment and then never sent the goods they bought, the dyes, further he then had the audacity to come to village demanding more gold for re-shipping the missing shipment while claiming he sent it to them already. Pao Pao confirms his story to Sioned in person when they ask to interrogate him. Sioned learns from Gong Tsu that despite her suspicions she lacks the proof he requires that Lu Soon is in fact up to no good and that Pao Pao did not try to cheat them. He offer to have Pao Pao transported to the Imperial City to be tried alongside the Li Brothers so that if what Sioned is true he can be released by the court with his honor and name vindicated.

Sioned declines the offer and, after being told that Gong Tsu knows of the shrine where the bandits camped, leads her group into the forest the next morning to look for more evidence. After many hours hacking through jungle and climbing across river chasms the group finds the shrine. There is evidence of wagons being brought in via another (much better maintained) path through the jungle. There’s even some dyes stolen by one of the bandits that they find. There’s also a shallow mass-grave with over 30 bodies rotting away in it.

Pieter checks out the shrine with a religious eye, looking for evidence of it’s purpose. He cleans up a bit, and says a few conciliatory prayers. As he finishes a bright white light descends from the Heavens, Pieter sees a vision of Ma Wei. He hears, in his head, Ma Wei thank him for cleaning his shrine, in repayment of that honor Ma Wei says he brings Pieter a visitor. As Ma Wei fades another ghostly figure appears to Pieter, it is a human decked out in formal clothes from long ago. He tells Pieter he is Li Jin, and that he is distressed for his family is split and quarreling. Li Jin offers that if Pieter can bring his descendants once again into peace and harmony Li Jin will ensure that the “Blessings of Heaven” fall upon him and his companions. Li Jin then vanishes back to the realm of the dead from whence he came with no further enlightening words.

Returning to Zhi Tao in the late afternoon Sioned speaks with Gong Tsu. On the evidence that Sioned found at the shrine Gong Tsu will agree to release Pao Pao, who immediately sets off down the road despite Pieter’s attempts to get him to stay for a bit saying he wants nothing more to do with these treacherous Zhi. Asking after the spirit in Pieter’s vision Gong Tsu refers them to the ancient witch who remembers best events from the village’s early days.

The witch relates how the village of Zhi Tao was formed by the notable Jin Zhi, the son of Li Jin. She relates how the conflict between the Zhi and the Zhangs stem from that time. According to her there was an important ritual needed to obtain the blessings of Heaven for the village when it was founded, Jin Zhi was carrying a powerful magic orb necessary to that ritual when the Zhang’s founder attacked him. The filthy Zhang stole the orb and very nearly caused the ritual to fail, which would have cursed the villagers down the generations even unto this day.

Alruna, racing after Pao Pao, manages to convince him to return to Zhi Tao for the night. At least he’ll be safer than he would traveling to Zhang Yi through the night. Sim evades the locals and imitates Lu Soon’s form in the presence of the Vistani, testing if they recognize him as he suspects they may be Lu Soon’s agents, he watches carefully when they first see him but no sign of recognition flits across their faces, not even briefly. Thus it is as night falls on the village of Zhi Tao and everyone beds down in the Inn of Restful Contemplation.

The fight at the shrine of Ma Wei goes fairly well. The evistro demons take some killing, but eventually they fall and the outcome is never really in question after the wraith of Ma Wei is put down.

The group then spends some time working on the shrine. They clean away the detritus of the years it’s lain un-cared-for. Some rituals to placate the dead are performed. There’s even some repair work put into restoring the roof of the shrine. As the last sounds of the ritual reconsecration finish the wraith of Ma Wei re-appears.

Ma Wei no longer seems tattered and disordered. Instead his ghost seems to be at peace. His hair is neat, his beard combed, his clothes seem of fine quality and are well-arranged. The ghost seems to speak, but no sound emerges. Ma Wei then raises his arms in blessing and a white light emanates from him. When everyone’s vision clears Ma Wei is gone, but Rook discovers that Ma Wei must have done something for the enchantment on his Pact Blade has been strengthened and reinforced.

Returning down the mountainside the group notices that the Vistani have packed up during the day. They can be seen in the distance driving down the road towards a gap between a pair of mountains a few hours away. As the daylight is beginning to fade the group hurries on to the town of Zhuge Liang.

In Zhuge Liang they speak again with Ma Li, a member of the House of Ma. Ma Li is pleased with their help and as promised reveals his source for the Imperial Gold silk. He says it comes from the village of Zhi Tao which is some weeks from the Imperial City of Ba Sing Se, which itself is a week or so’s travel from Zhuge Liang. He also reveals that during the week of the full moon his agents can use the Palace of the Lunar Emperor to pass through a mountain pass that cuts the journey down to a day or two. But he warns them that the journey is dangerous, and that if they are caught in the Palace come sunrise they will never be seen again.

Driven by time constraints, their merchant’s pass will expire in a week, Sioned polls opinions and leads the party down the road towards the pass where the Palace of the Lunar Emperor appears. It becomes apparent as they walk that they are following in the footsteps of the Vistani caravan. Near the pass they stop at an Imperial fort at the fork in the road going up to the Palace. Captain Li Bao-Xiang tells them more of the history of the Palace and gives them enough information on the guards that they can identify the foes they will probably face. He also tries to dissuade them from going to the Palace.

Undaunted the group begins to climb up the road leading to the pass. As they climb the road first becomes steeper, then becomes rougher, then ceases to exist altogether, becoming naught more than a rough foot-path. Some time later the road re-appears, in pristine condition. It crests the pass and reveals a valley between the two peaks. The road leads down to the center of the valley where a magnificent palace built of white quartz sits. It is watched over by infrequent patrols of the Emperor’s Terracotta Warriors, warforged by another name.

Sneaking successfully past the main gate the party enters the Palace. They manage to avoid attention for about half the trip. But passing alongside a huge courtyard, it appears to be designed to allow tens of thousands of the Emperor’s Servants to assemble for review at a time, they attract a patrol’s attention. The fight gets nasty as, despite catching some Warriors in a Visions of Avarice, others escape and the leader never even gets caught. But in the end the party is successful.

The fight draws attention though. Sioned and Pieter, followed by the rest, flee out the rear gate just ahead of Terracotta Warrior re-inforcements. As the group climbs up out of the valley they can see hundreds of troops mustering in front of the gate to pursue them, in the courtyard the mobile seige-engines begin to gather. But as they crest the lip of the valley the sun rises, and in the light of day the Palace and all it’s Warriors vanish like mists.

The session begins with everyone talking with Caravan in the Drunken Apple, an inn down by the river-docks in Tradegate. He tells them the Road to Ba Sing Se, and draws them a rough map. He gives them a merchant’s pass, good for a few more weeks in the Earth Kingdom. He tells them to start their investigation with the House of Ma in the town of Zhuge Liang. In return for all this he says he wants “a cut”, a cut of their rep that is, if Sioned succeeds in re-opening trade in Imperial Gold silk he wants her to be sure to mention his name in a good way to any factors she speaks to about it. Everyone agrees this is a good deal, after all agents trade on rep and Sioned has little else to offer at the moment that Caravan wants.

Before departing on the Rim Trade Road Sioned stops in at the house of Master Trader Duncam. One filling, though not luxurious, meal and several hours waiting later Duncam steps in to see what the group wants. Sioned explains her current desire to investigate the lost Imperial Gold silk trade, and asks for a purse to help with expenses. Duncam says that will doubtless please Master Pizarro, who trades in rare goods, and gives them a purse of 1,500 gold to help them along in their investigation. He allows that he’ll probably get the gold from Master Pizarro when he sees him at the next Council meeting.

The next morning the five set out from Tradegate. The two days travel along the Rim Trade Road is uneventful. People might be surprised but it’s clear that the volume of traffic combined with regular sweeps along the road by the griffon-riders of Tradegate keep the route safe. Thus it is that the trip to the Fin of the World is uneventful. The ridge of stone looks remarkably fin-like, and the hole bored through it does contain a gate, which opens to the parchment inscribed with magical runes that Sioned uses.

Passing through to the Elemental Plane, to the Pandemonium Stone more specifically, the party is attacked on arrival. A Death Shard, a Flux Slaad, and a pair of slaad tadpoles leap to the attack. Sim traps most of them with a Visions, and Rook finishes them with the Vestige of Ugar. The Flux Slaad manages to stay free though, and the Shard doesn’t care, so the fight proves nasty.

Finally done with the fight, and after a short rest, the party explores the Pandemonium Stone. Moving down it they eventually come to a tavern carved out of the rock itself, two adamantine doors inscribed “The Trackless House” bar entry to the outside. After knocking they are let in by a warrior genasi named Altayar. After hearing their mission, over their dinner, he leads them to an aged djinn named Farzan who seems to run the Trackless House. Farzan questions them for a bit, and reveals a Truth about language that goes a little deep for those not named Sim. At the end he agrees to let them pass through his portal to the Palace of Judgement with a minimal payment of 200 gp to open the portal.

Arriving in a huge library in the Palace of Judgement Sioned starts asking around for Lu Bu, their contact for the next gate. Some guards take poorly to the group wandering around, but are convinced to take them to Lu Bu for a decision as to what to do. Lu Bu, the Fourth Undersecretary to the Junior Minister in service to the Warden of Souls, queries them as to their business in the Earth Kingdom. Determining that they do not threaten the Celestial Bureaucracy or it’s hold on the Earth Kingdom he agrees to send them there, provided that Pieter and Alruna agree to not proselytize on behalf of Erathis. Both agree and he has a pair of bull-like guards escort them out of the Palace of Judgement to a great temple arch a few hours away. There the arch is activated by the guards reading a formally signed declaration from Lu Bu approving their travel.

Passing through that gate Sioned leads the group into a temple to the Celestial Bureaucracy. It’s clear they’ve all entered a new plane that no one has visited before, the land of the Earth Kingdom. The priests there greet there arrival with some wonder, and direct them both to a local Imperial Outpost and to the town of Zhuge Liang. Stopping first at the guardpost Sioned confirms her pass, and pays 40 gold to have the local captain sign the names of her “guards” onto the pass as well. Moving onwards they spend the night in an inn on the Road to Ba Sing Se and the next day arrive at Zhuge Liang.

The “town” proves to have 50,000 to 80,000 people living in it, it is by far the largest city anyone has been to. (excepting some people’s brief trips to the City of Brass and The Cage) Some asking around leads them to the House of Ma. There they speak with Ma Li, an elder son of the patriarch of the house.

Ma Li is evasive about the Imperial Gold silk, understandably since he doesn’t want the PTC cutting him out of his own trade route. But since the route does seem dead, AND since Sim rolled spectacularly well on his bluff check to tell Ma Li “We would never undercut a trading partner like that,” totally a lie, he agrees to help. There is a price however. A shrine to his ancestor Ma Wei has been despoiled. It is occupied by undead and demons immune to the strikes of anyone from the Earth Kingdom. As outsider barbarians Sioned and her group should be able to fight them. Everyone agrees to this deal.

Leaving the town-gate and traveling to the nearby mountain the shrine is on the group passes a troupe of Vistani gypsies encamped beside a small road. They pass on by exchanging greetings but refusing the Vistani hospitality. The hill should be difficult to climb, but it is as nothing compared to the climb up to Maelbrathyr and the party easily locates the shrine.

Within the Shrine of Ma Wei is the wraith of Ma Wei, driven mad by the disrespect implied by his unkempt shrine. (Mad I tell you …. . MAD!!!!) The party charges to attack the wraith, critically wounding it in the opening round. At that point four demons rise up out of four great sarcophagi to attack the group. Some initial blows are traded, the wraith is destroyed, but the combat remains unresolved when we break for the night.

Next week .. . . the finish of the fight and the next step on the Road to Ba Sing Se.

The combat with the goblins continues to go badly for the goblins. Multiple warriors and cleavers caught in the Visions of Avarice combine with the Vestige of Ugar into a recipe for “goblin suck.” The Underboss and some warriors manage to escape, but most perish.

The drow scout rejoins the party and leads them onwards. Some hours further on he stops and tells them they are about to step onto the King’s Highway. He declines to continue onwards at this point. He does tell them that Maelbrathyr lies close by on the other side of the mirror, and that it should be safe for a day or so since it’s still Carnival. Carnival is a week-long festival where the slave-markets (and other markets) are open and the city becomes a haven from the dangers of the Underdark, but when the festival ends Maelbrathyr returns to it’s normal practices of enslaving anyone it can catch.

The party then ventures out onto the King’s Highway. Although they are in the Deeps, here in the mirror-world it is like the shallows. They fail to notice the God’s-Dream rock beneath their feet. (not good enough dungeoneering checks)

As they progress along the highway they meet a pair of dwarven slavers returning from the markets at Maelbrathyr with a pair of human warrior-slaves. Both groups form up lines and move to engage. The fight goes for a while. The dwarven bolter causes quite a bit of consternation as it constantly gets cover from good positioning and does substantial damage to everyone it shoots at with it’s carefully aimed shots. The bolter drops Sioned mid-fight. In the end it tries to run, but can’t escape Rook who (along with Sim) chases it down.

It’s unsure exactly when the group passes out of the mirror-realm and into The Land, but eventually everyone notices the change of plane and knows they’re “home”. (for very broad definitions of “home”) Soon thereafter they come a spot where acrid water drips and rains down on them from chasms above, from the drow’s description the city of Maelbrathyr lies directly above them.

The climb upwards proves to be nearly impossible however. Everyone suffers over the course of two days as they stuggle upwards. It’s very “three steps upwards, two steps falling back down”. Exhausted from the climb and exposure to the wet and cold around Maelbrathyr they finally emerge from a crevasse to see the lower gates to the city . .. . and to discover that Carnival has ended.

Some discussion of options takes place. They discount going back down. And sneaking in over the city-walls gets discounted as well. No one can figure out a way to go up that doesn’t involve entering Maelbrathyr. So in the end they do their best to conceal Pieter and Alruna’s allegiances and try to disguise themselves as cultists of Torog and enter the city as pilgrims. They pass religious tests, and bluff the guards, and manage to buy holy symbols of Torog as pilgrim’s passes for the city, at a high cost of 1 platinum per person.

Inside Maelbrathyr they start asking around the Tilting Tenements for routes to the surface. They find that the best, and fastest, route would be a two-week journey from the uppermost level to the dwarven city of Forgehome. Since that would take too long they explore other options and find that the House of Dungrim might be willing to magically transport them.

Successfully convincing the house guards to let them talk to Jokko Dungrim, the “Ruby Wizard”, who leads House Dungrim they proceed to try to convince him to help them without giving too much away. Jokko agrees, and due to Sioned’s quite charming words doesn’t even charge them more than the normal market price.
Initially there’s much concern amongst the party, no one has much gold left. Master Plo suggests they offer the candles, which Jokko will accept. But even after checking individual’s purses they still come up slightly short of what they need. Alruna then offers that she could help, although she knows she’s poor and her purse is insignifigant. When she opens her purse it becomes apparent that the “poor knight” of Erathis isn’t quite so poor as she thought, and she covers the entire cost of the ritual except for the candles.

The portal the wizard of House Dungrim links to proves to be slightly spinward of the hag in the Kvalik Forest, a mere day’s travel from Tradegate. They arrive at night and, after moving slightly off, make camp for the night. Come morning everyone hikes spinward to the river Elbruin and there take ship aboard a river boat bound for Tradegate. Later that afternoon they pull into Tradegate’s docks and head straight for Master Pizarro’s house.

Pizarro isn’t happy about what’s happened. But he’s quite practical. Agreeing with Sioned and Szass Tam he destroys the mirror connecting the worlds. Master Plo stays a few days with him, discussing theories about mirror-worlds and exotic academic trivia, after which he takes ship for the River Ma’at and the route back to Sum of All.

A few days later a slight half-elf named Caravan approaches the five friends at breakfast in a local inn. He introduces himself as another agent of the PTC and offers Sioned a letter from Estevan. In it Estevan commends her actions, and tells her to speak with Aral T’forc about re-imbursing her expenses, she did save his life and business after all. He then rummages through several bags (of holding) before pulling out a box of magic items that Estevan has sent for Sioned and her “men.” Caravan then says he’ll finish breakfast here and asks Sioned to return after speaking with T’forc.

Returning with purses made fat with gold the party again meets Caravan in the inn. He’s polished off a good breakfast, and a lot of wine. He says that Estevan didn’t mention anything for Sioned to do, and was himself off doing something far to dangerous for such a new and untested agent as Sioned to get involved in. He does offer that if Sioned is interested in showing some initiative he may have something she could investigate, the alternative being hanging around Tradegate serving the Master Trader’s needs.

Rook is probably quite relieved when Sioned says she’d much rather be known as someone with ambition than as a hanger-on, and asks after what Caravan found. Caravan explains how he’s recently returned from the Kingdom of Ba Sing Se. He pulls a 6 foot bolt of fine crimson silk cloth from a tiny purse at his waist saying, “they make some of the finest silks there.” But there’s a problem. His normal source for “Imperial Gold” silk (a color it is dyed, not literally made of gold) has dried up. He offered an extortionate price, so he’s certain the House of Ma didn’t have any to sell. But he also didn’t have time to investigate the situation more closely.

He says that if Sioned wants to show some initiative she could go and solve this mystery. Restoring trade in “Imperial Gold” would please many factors, some of them in places far from Tradegate. Sioned agrees that would be a good thing.

“Well then,” Caravan says, “Let’s negotiate some terms. I can give you contacts, the ‘road to Ba Sing Se’, and useful background information and passes. All I want in return is a ‘fair’ cut of the profits . . .. . . .”

The session begins with Alruna, a young paladin of Erathis, in Hestavar. She is visited by the angel Machariel, who tells her to find and protect Pieter, Erathis’s servant. Machariel instructs her to “Find the Black Witch, pass through the looking glass, seek thee the penitent dead, and there shall thou find thy charge.”

Back in mirror Faerun Sioned and her men continue up to the top of Mt. Thay, turning some ankles and such on the last cliff they assault. Atop they discover a paladin of Erathis awaiting them, standing beside a liche.

Back in Hestavar Alruna manages to find Estevan, aboard the Black Witch. She agrees to take service with him in return for quick passage to where Pieter is. Estevan leads her through a gate to Silverton, then onwards (via the Heads of Amn) to Port Liberty, there they hop the Wardrobe Gate to the City of Brass, where Estevan takes them through another gate to the city of Sigil, finally passing through the Market Ward they take one final portal to Tradegate, where Estevan hands Alruna off to Master Pizarro. Pizarro sends her through the looking glass to mirror-Bezantur where she barely escapes the army of the Empire of Cormyr as it assaults (and takes) the city. Fleeing Harper insurgents, regular Cormyrian Army troops, and various mercenary forces she makes her way to the top of Mt. Thay where she meets Szass Tam and one of his Zulkirs. Alruna is surprised by Szass Tam not being evil, and waits with him while the party finishes their climb and approaches. Once united with Pieter she agrees to work for Sioned since it means she can more easily guard Pieter that way.

Sioned and Szass Tam talk for a bit. With the fall of Bezantur, and the advance of the army on Eltabbar underway, Szass Tam convinces her that fulfilling her mission is impossible. There will be no factor of the PTC here at this time. He goes a step further and convinces Sioned that if she doesn’t want the villainous Elminster interfering in Tradegate she’ll need to destroy the mirror linking their two worlds before he discovers it’s powers. Since Bezantur is unreachable, the party returns to Eltabbar to speak with Tam Rothgar about getting back to their world so they can destroy the mirror from that side.

In Eltabbar they speak with Tam Rothgar and the Tharchion of Eltabbar after finding Master Plo. The Tharchion agrees to send them into the Underdark if they pay for the reagents for the ritual since Master Plo believes he has found a route out of the mirror-world there. Tam Rothgar agrees to help, and will lead many of the people of Eltabbar out to the wilds of Rashemon where they will shelter with their barbarian allies in the hope of eventually retaking their homes, the Tharchion plans to die defending the city walls.

The linked portal goes to the drow city of Menzoberranzan. On arrival they are stopped and questioned by drow guards watching over the portal. The guards are polite in a distant, monastic, sort of way, and upon finding that their mission is peaceful give them directions to the abbey where Mother Superior Eclavdra resides. On the way there they see many instances of drow compassion and kindness, including ascetic priestesses giving all they have to help feed the poor who crowd round them when they go out.

Eclavdra proves a busy woman, unsurprisingly. She also proves to be a very holy woman who speaks to Sioned about the nature of mirror worlds and implies that this mission could never have succeeded due to that nature. Eclavdra confirms that Master Plo is correct, there is a section of the King’s Highway in the mirror-underdark, and it can be used to get to the “Real World”, though she warns them that the real underdark is a hideously dangerous place and specifically cautions them against any drow they should meet there. She can not help guide the party herself, nor has she monks or nuns to do so, but she does recommend them to the Bregan D’Aerthe a mercenary group of scouts and spies who can.

The bargaining goes well with the Bregan D’Aerthe, and Sioned manages to hire a scout for the fairly paltry price of a platinum a head, so 600 gp in total. The scout is highly stealthy, and fairly regularly moves out far in advance of the party to be sure the passages ahead are safe. It is at one such time that the party enters into a large cave where two streams meet. The cave is dimly lit by lightly glowing crystals in the walls, and contains stalagmite walls interspersed with giant fungi.

Failed perception checks soon reveal that it also contains a troop of goblin thieves, or rather the hail of javelins rattling off shields and armor reveal that. Rook and Sim combine to trap a flank of the goblins with visions of avarice and the fight begins in earnest. . .. ...

[I will note that the tiny post here is a combination of pressure to get it out quick due to Real Life™ combined with a largely combat-focussed session. We were demonstrating 4th ed. combat to a friend so I tried to keep the session focussed in that direction. Heavy fighting sessions are always small when it comes to writing the log.]

After finishing off a quartet of skeletons and driving off a Harper spy the group takes a short rest to consider their options.

Descending Mount Thay they approach the city of Eltabbar late at night. The guard refuses to let them in since they could easily be Harper spies for the Cormyrian army assaulting the beaches of Thay even as they speak. Sioned does convince them to imprison them in the city jail for the night, getting them a safe extended rest.

Come morning they are woken by the guards and fed a bland breakfast of some sort of oat-meal. Soon after that an elderly man in the robes of a Red Wizard comes into the jail and introduces himself as Tam Rothgar. (He doesn’t mention he’s a descendant of Szass Tam) He apologizes for their treatment but allows that proving themselves to NOT be Harper spies can be problematic. If they will consent to speaking under a Zone of Truth he agree to question them, and if they appear to be friends to then release them to their own affairs. The group agrees.

No lies are told, though some information is withheld as best it can be. In the end the Red Wizard is convinced they intend no harm to Szass Tam and are not aiding Cormyr or the Harpers. He therefore declares he has no legal cause to hold them and releases them to the city. They ask after Szass Tam and he directs them to ascend Mount Thay and seek him in the volcanic crater atop it.

Ascending the Mountain they are first attacked as they pass by a graveyard. A spectre and a quartet of phantom warriors come forth to attack. Through the use of several dailies they are defeated without great cost.

Beyond the graveyard lies their next test, a steep slope and series of cliffs they need to ascend. Through a combination of athletic skill, clever insight into safe routes, and sheer endurance they make it further up Mount Thay.

Past the steep slopes the mountainside broadens into a forest covered bowl. Passing through it the party encounters a force of mercenaries hired by the Harpers. The goblin mercenaries charge, yipping, downslope towards the group. Goblins fall to the left and the right, but more charge forward led by a pair of axe-wielding bersekers. The goblin hexer proves quite dangerous, blinding Sim for several rounds, and a pair of goblin snipers do heavy damage as well. In the end it isn’t enough and the party slays the entire war-troop before taking a short rest.

[I should note that the paucity of this, and the following post, result from the explosion of Real Life™ into my game-space. I generally discourage this, but occasionally a case of RL does break out. My apologies for whatever I’ve missed mentioning here due to my need to do the writeup in quick-time.]

It’s been months since Pieter first returned to Port Liberty. Everything is finally in place, the city walls are up, the militia better trained, a new captain is on the way, and the temple is set. Pieter is finally sitting down for an ale when the town alarm bell begins to ring and a messenger comes racing in to warn him that Lady Y’larra is attacking!

Sioned, Rook, Sim, and Silla make their way through the portal at the Heads of Amn to the Isle of Kss’Thrak and thence down to Port Liberty. There is a commotion, meeting Pieter they all race to the docks to see what is happening. There they discover Estevan, along with Rel and a young navy lieutenant (a Blackwater from a cadet branch) Rel repays Sioned and stays to take over the defense of Port Liberty while everyone else takes ship with Estevan.

Sailing down the river Ma’At Estevan and Silla and Sioned discuss some business. Once at the mouth of the Ma’At, in the city of Du’um, the Black Witch turns around for Tradegate and the trio of adventurer’s depart. Buying passage across the Sea of Tir fo Thuin for cheap gold, plus a 100 gold sacrifice to Mannannan Mac Lir, they depart but a few days walk from Sum of All.

In the Rilmani city Sum of All they find the Library of Mirrors. Some asking around puts them in contact with Master Anan Plo, Master Plo is an expert on mirror realms. Spending another 600 gold on magic candles to light their way in the Library the trio and Master Plo begin an expedition into the Library’s depths. After burning through 8 candles searching (leaving 4 more unburnt, a value of 200 gold) they find what they are seeking in the form of a book written by an author from Mirror Toril. Master Plo tries to leave them before they begin the ritual, but returns to inform them they’ve been cut off from the entrance by someone putting out candles.

The first attempt to cast the ritual to travel to the author of the book fails when, as they darken the room to break the connection to the library, a force of Kamerel attack. (The Kamerel are the race the originally built Sum of All and the Mirror Library and were driven off by the Rilmani.) Defeating that force the group manages a quick side-slip of a room or two and retries the ritual, successfully this time.

In a blizzard of paper and mirror-shards they are transported . . . . to a dark, moonlight, night on the side of a great mountain. (Mt. Thay) They arrive in a graveyard, the author must be dead, and beging to depart, heading down the slope towards a large city on the shore of a great lake (Eltabbar). Before they can exit the graveyard they are attacked by a Harper agent, a tiefling darkblade leading a quartet of skeletons.